Some more bad press and new, disappointing polls in Michigan may be further signs of trouble for the presidential campaign of Gov. Bill Richardson, who is increasingly becoming known on the national stage as a panderer.
The governor has had a rough few weeks. His poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire have stagnated despite his best efforts. Meanwhile, an out-of-control game of leapfrog has emerged among states who want to move up primary and caucus dates in opposition to the wishes of the national parties, which makes it harder for candidates with less money to compete. In addition, Richardson has been on the defensive since mistakenly telling a gay-rights group that homosexuality is a choice.
It got worse on Monday, when Richardson told Iowans it was God’s will that the state hold the first caucuses in the nation.
“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord, should be the first caucus and primary,” the Des Moines Register quoted Richardson as telling a crowd there. “And I want you to know who was the first candidate to sign a pledge not to campaign anywhere if they got ahead of Iowa. It was Bill Richardson.”
The Lord’s will? Several people in the crowd “snickered,” the Register reported. Richardson was criticized for pandering. It got worse after he tried to explain himself.
“I’m trying to score points,” Richardson said on MSNBC. You can watch the video here.
That prompted criticism from Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, the founder of the nationally influential liberal blog DailyKos:
“You know, he’s better than this – his solid record confirms that – but the national stage is clearly not for him. He’s clearly ill-prepared for it,” Moulitsas wrote. “There’s a nice Senate race just begging for his entrance in New Mexico. His style is clearly a great fit for his state, and it deserves non-senile, non-corrupt representation in the Senate. I know it’s just a pipe dream, but I’m losing respect for Richardson the longer he remains in this presidential race. And as the highest-profile Latino in American government, I’d rather that not happen.”
Moulitsas then notes that those who voted in a poll on his site thought the reference to God and Iowa was a worse instance of pandering than Richardson’s assertion several months ago that he can be both a Red Sox and Yankees fan.
Richardson’s pandering continued at a recent fundraiser in Santa Fe. I came across a blog posting from the Santa Fe Reporter’s David Alire Garcia that recounted Richardson, at the fundraiser, dropping the F-bomb while apologizing for the “choice” remark. He then promised to push for domestic partner benefits during the next session.
According to Garcia, Richardson, after apologizing, asked whether there were any reporters in the room. After hearing no objection to his request to go off the record, he told the group that he “F***ed up.”
The comment made its way into print.
Richardson has, in recent weeks, explained away his mistakes and off-the-cuff remarks by saying he makes one mistake a week. That’s becoming a problem for his campaign. The MSNBC reporter interviewing him about the “Lord” remark prefaced his questions with this:
“As you’ve joked, you’re making a mistake a week. Maybe you got it out of the way early this week,” he told Richardson.
Richardson is risking losing credibility and not appearing presidential. Moulitsas has already decided he isn’t presidential.
Michigan looms large
The Michigan House and Senate have approved, and the governor is expected to sign, a plan to hold Michigan’s presidential nominating contest on Jan. 15 – the day after Iowa’s is currently scheduled. That could lessen the importance of New Hampshire and make Nevada almost irrelevant, and has the potential to doom Richardson’s campaign.
Two new polls in the state, which includes the large Detroit media market that favors well-funded candidates, aren’t encouraging for Richardson.
One, conducted for the Detroit News, has Hillary Clinton at 40 percent, Barack Obama at 21 percent, John Edwards at 16 percent and Richardson at 1 percent. That survey of 400 Democrats has a margin of error of 5 percent.
The second, from American Research Group, has Clinton at 43 percent, Obama at 21 percent, Edwards at 14 percent and Richardson at 5 percent. The survey of 600 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted Saturday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of 4 percent.
The next steps
Richardson appears to have lost the momentum he had as recently as mid-July. He has made a number of nationally publicized mistakes and failed to adequately explain them. Clinton and Obama have started spending a lot more money on advertising. In addition, the primary calendar has descended into anarchy.
There is good news for Richardson: Last week, he was the first to sign a pledge to not campaign in states besides Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina that hold contests before Feb. 5. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden quickly joined him. Now, Obama and Edwards have done the same.
That has the potential to stabilize the calendar. There’s a good chance it will preserve the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire, but Richardson’s strategy also includes an important contest in Nevada. In the end, Michigan and Florida aren’t likely to avoid stepping over Nevada.
Richardson has run a campaign based on being the most experienced candidate and, today, he tried to remind people of that. You might recall Richardson recovering the remains of an American soldier during an April visit to North Korea. Today, the Department of Defense notified Richardson that it had identified the soldier as one from Iowa.
He made sure, with a news release, that everyone knew it – and knew about the letter the soldier’s family wrote him thanking him for recovering the remains.
It’s actually a quite touching story, and will resonate with some voters. But to have a real shot at the nomination, Richardson has to start sounding more presidential by realizing that, when you’re a presidential candidate, nothing is off the record and, more importantly, by ending his shameless pandering.
Some more bad press and new, disappointing polls in