Gov. Bill Richardson impressed many party insiders during a speech he gave Saturday at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting.
Click here to read the Albuquerque Journal’s article on the event, and here to read about it from the Associated Press. If you’re so inclined, below is video of his speech, in two parts, and the text of the entire speech.
Before the video, here are a few more links. The Albuquerque Journal ran the third part of its lengthy, in-depth biography of
Here’s the first half of
Here’s the second half:
Here’s the text of the speech:
Gov. Bill Richardson’s speech to the DNC Winter Meeting
Feb. 4, 2007
When we were first invited to speak here today, we were all told that each of us would have only seven minutes…
Seven minutes… to tell you how we’d create better jobs, expand health care, save the environment, improve our schools, balance the budget, fight terrorism, get out of Iraq and bring peace to the Middle East.
I don’t need seven minutes. I can do that in four words: “Elect a Democratic president.”
You’re on your second day of hearing political speeches. And you’ve heard from some of our best. Our country would be a lot better off with any one of them serving in the White House – as my vice president!
But the truth is, we will only win the White House if we, as fellow Democrats who share core fundamental beliefs, don’t tear each other down.
We are a party built on a platform of ideas and ideals. We share a fundamental belief in the notion that equality is not achieved by knocking someone else out of the way and kicking them when they’re down. Instead, we believe in offering them a hand and lifting them up.
It’s why today I’m calling on all the other Democratic candidates to agree to run only positive campaigns in this Democratic nominating process. And further, I call on the Democratic National Committee to pass a resolution demanding that all the candidates run clean campaigns and not attack each other.
I don’t buy this nonsense that negative campaigns toughen up a nominee.
Save it for the Republicans.
Now, I could tell you, in a positive way, that we need a Democratic nominee who’s brokered international agreements, understands the
In fact, I think that sounds pretty good.
But the truth is, most of
Our challenge as Democrats is to not just break through the voters’ cynicism, but also to convince them that we’re up to the job they’ve entrusted us with.
We’ve won the Congress, but we still have a lot to prove. We need a Democratic nominee who’s able to stand up for our principles, make the case to the American people, show them we can get things done and create a lasting Democratic majority.
Because I’m tired of hearing that Democrats don’t stand for anything. We do. The American people need to know that we’re standing up for them. And they need to know that we can get the job done.
I’m proud to be a Democrat. And I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in my home state of
How many of you have visited
We have over 80,000 new jobs, many of them in high tech industries. We have the lowest unemployment rate since 1978, up to sixth in the nation for job growth, seventh in the nation for personal income growth.
And we didn’t abandon union families along the way. One of the first things I did as Governor was reinstate collective bargaining for public employees. We secured the first public works labor agreement in
When it came to standing up for the rights of working people, we didn’t compromise our ideals. We acted on them.
To create all those jobs, we first passed a specific tax credit for creating good paying jobs. We made the rural jobs tax credit permanent, enacted a three-year tax holiday for high-tech startups, and invested state money in local companies that showed great promise for success and job creation.
Rather than use tax cuts to reward the wealthy, I use them to reward putting people to work.
We balanced the budget. But we also increased school funding by $600 million dollars, and we made sure it all went into the classroom and not the bureaucracy.
In fact, the first thing we did was give teachers a raise, and we’ve given them a raise every year since.
When I came into office, we were 48th in teacher pay. With this year’s raise we’ll be 27th, and we’re aiming even higher.
Our teachers deserve it, our children are better off, our schools are improving, and our parents believe in us again. If we can do that in
We expanded state health insurance to cover every child, lowered the cost of health care for working families, and we’re helping small businesses create purchasing pools so they can get the same low insurance rates as large employers.
Two of the bedrock principles of the Democratic Party are equal access to an excellent education and equal access to health care. For too long in this country, we’ve had neither.
But we’re making great strides in
In
Some call
Finally, Mark Twain said, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” Well, when it comes to global warming and climate change, we’re doing something about it in
I set tough standards to reduce greenhouse emissions. We’ve invested directly in energy efficiency. And no other state has done as much to promote renewable energy – with tax credits for using wind, solar, and biofuels. We’ve eliminated taxes on hybrid cars, and we’re requiring utility companies to start producing energy from renewable sources.
Every one of these accomplishments can be done at the national level.
But it’s not enough to just win the Congress back. We need someone who can win the White House back.
And I know the usual rap on governors – that we don’t know anything about foreign affairs. Well, maybe you can say that about governors from
But not this governor.
Last December, I was visited by a delegation of North Koreans seeking my advice before the disarmament talks. They wanted to know how in the world they’re supposed to work with an administration that thinks “axis of evil” is a bargaining position.
When I visited
And the Middle East wants to know how we can expect to bring peace to the region while shutting
The war in
The next president must be able to repair the damage that’s been done to our country’s reputation over the last six years. It’s why experience in foreign affairs has never been more important.
But whatever you may think of a pre-emptive war grounded in the clouded reasoning of a vengeful administration and a misled Congress, the reality is, we have done in
We have rid the world of a brutal dictator. We have brought about free and fair elections three times over. The Iraqis now have a constitution, over 200,000 armed soldiers, and they have oil revenue.
It’s time for our troops to leave with honor.
When it comes to this president, I don’t know how someone can be so blind to the hurt and anguish in this country, and so deaf to the will of the people.
This is not presidential greatness. This is a great tragedy.
A struggle for human rights is worthy of military intervention. A true threat to our country’s security is worthy of war.
But a struggle between a country’s warring factions, where both sides hate the
As someone who served in Congress for 14 years, I know the power they hold should they choose to wield it. The Congress passed a resolution authorizing war. They need to pass another that overturns that authorization, and brings our troops home by the end of this year.
You would think that when the Congress realized they were lied to, they would have done something about it. Well, they still can.
Once our troops are gone, we still have a role to play. We have a moral responsibility to bring the Sunni and Shia together in a national reconciliation conference. And we have a strategic interest in organizing a regional conference with all of
But more than anything else, we have a moral obligation to those Americans who have laid down their lives.
Some say we cannot let their sacrifice be in vain. But you will never convince me that those slain patriots would have wanted a single additional life to be lost just to validate their own sacrifice.
Instead, the moral obligation is to honor their service by bringing their mission to a close. By ending the bloodshed, and finally letting the Iraqi people set their own course.
Those would be the principles of my presidency. And those would be the ideals I would seek.
Thank you, God bless you, God bless the Democratic Party, and God bless the