A political columnist for the conservative National Review says Gov. Bill Richardson might be the best candidate for president in 2008, and compares him in a favorable way to President Bush.
We all know how much Richardson likes it when conservatives tout him as a great guy. I’m guessing he doesn’t like being compared to Bush.
In an article published online today, Jonathan Martin touts Richardson’s wide range of experience.
“If there were a presidential candidate available who had deep experience in both state and federal government, the executive and legislative branch, and foreign and domestic affairs, would he be rated among the top of the field?” he wrote. “How about if the same candidate had the retail political skills to match his policy experience and came from a bellwether state in a battleground part of the country? And what if this person had the sort of national contacts that are a must to raise the significant sums necessary for a run for the White House?”
“And did we mention he’s part of the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group, is bilingual, and has a record of getting crossover votes?” he wrote.
The article is an unusually favorable look from a conservative publication at Richardson’s strengths that quietly dismisses his flaws.
“Beyond this litany is an engaging and likeable man who is a force of nature on the campaign trail,” Martin wrote. “… Richardson also embraces the politics of the West. He’s pro gun… has cut taxes, and most importantly has been supportive of business while also protecting the land. Such policies have brought ranchers and hunters into the fold, many of them Republicans and conservative-leaning independents, and helped him garner 68 percent of the vote in his re-election bid this year.”
I grow tired of national media outlets claiming that Richardson has cut taxes – state government under his leadership has cut some, raised others, and overall, there’s been little change – but the rest of what Martin wrote is true.
“And despite his New England pedigree, Richardson successfully affects the style of the region. He can pull off a cowboy hat and bolo tie and appear in spaghetti Western-style campaign commercial without it looking too forced. He also talks in the direct and occasionally salty manner of the West,” he wrote.
It’s that style, Martin claimed, that causes many to dismiss Richardson.
“Like another governor from the Southwest who sought the presidency, Richardson is seen as being immature and unserious. As with President Bush, Richardson has an endless supply of charm and a politician’s preternatural gift for how to work a room and recall a face. But also like Bush, Richardson’s one-on-one abilities are diminished by his inability to mask, for example, showing disinterest when he isn’t interested,” Martin wrote.
For example, Martin wrote, Richardson revealed his boredom while appearing with Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean last year by making faces at staff members while Dean was speaking. He is also prone, as Martin pointed out, to saying in English he won’t run for president before saying in Spanish that he will.
That joking “frat guy persona” gets Richardson in trouble with the political elite, Martin wrote.
Martin quoted one national pundit who places Richardson in the top tier of Democratic candidates with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, and another pundit who said Richardson isn’t in that tier.
Even the one who places Richardson in the top four, University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato, told Martin that Richardson’s biggest liability is his behavior, but the article is short on actual examples of improper conduct beyond those I’ve already cited.
Still, those who work closely with state government know some things about the governor. Richardson has a temper. He leaves little room for dissent. He believes he’s a big fish in a little pond and acts like it.
How does that compare with a president who has a DWI and another who lacked the sense to remain faithful to his wife by avoiding sexual relations with another woman in the Oval Office?
What is Richardson’s baggage? If he runs for president, you can be certain it’s all coming out.
A political columnist for the conservative National Review says Gov. Bill Richardson might be the best candidate for president in 2008, and compares him in a favorable way to President Bush.