The bad news continues for Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign. I wrote on Monday about his decline in the polls. Today, three new polls further confirm his sinking support.
To top it off, the National Journal has moved Richardson from fourth in its rankings among Democratic presidential contenders to sixth. In addition to being behind Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, he’s now also ranked by the publication behind Chris Dodd and Joe Biden.
“The issue we have with Richardson is that he’s a terrible liberal; it’s not in the guy’s DNA,” the National Journal states. “He’s trying to become the anti-war candidate but doesn’t seem like a credible messenger.”
Three American Research Group polls released today have Richardson at 7 percent in Iowa, 5 percent in New Hampshire and 1 percent in South Carolina. All three are drops from the group’s September polls. Meanwhile, Biden has climbed to 5 percent in Iowa, 4 percent in New Hampshire and 6 percent in South Carolina in the new polls.
In the face of all the bad news, Richardson came to Clinton’s defense today, saying he regrets the “negative tone” Obama and Edwards have taken in accusing her of being too close to lobbyists, according to the Associated Press.
“I think that Senators Obama and Edwards should concentrate on the issues and not on attacking Senator Clinton,” the news service quoted Richardson as saying. “It’s OK to get aggressive on the issues, but to make personal attacks on somebody’s attachments to lobbyists, that’s not the kind of positive tone I want to see.”
Richardson – a guy who has accused all three frontrunners in recent months of deceiving the American people with their Iraq plans – also predicted he’ll win the nomination because he’s running a positive campaign.
But his defense of Clinton is raising eyebrows in part because it comes on the same day that Clinton, on her campaign’s official news Web site, took the unusual step of putting up video of and information about the attacks by Obama and Edwards. Clinton also included a link to a news release from her campaign that essentially says she’s being unfairly attacked.
Richardson and Clinton defending Clinton from attacks on the same day? While Richardson is sinking in the polls? What does it mean?
Maybe nothing. Maybe much more than that. It will be interesting to see whether the two are chummy at tonight’s debate.
The bad news continues for Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign. I wrote on Monday about his decline in the polls. Today, three new polls further confirm his sinking support.