Maybe it was because he’s more comfortable in the West. Maybe it was the fact that it was his birthday. Maybe he’s finally finding his stride.
Whatever the case, Gov. Bill Richardson’s performance at Thursday’s Democratic presidential candidate debate in Las Vegas, Nev. was impressive. That’s not to say he won – there were several strong performances – but Richardson was assertive, calm and confident, and he spoke clearly and convincingly on a number of issues. He also used wit to vary the tone of his answers and keep people paying attention to him, and he was granted more time to speak than he has received in previous debates.
The half-truths Richardson has told throughout the campaign were still there. For example, he continued to twist the words of the three frontrunners by saying they plan to leave troops in Iraq until 2013.
But others also told half-truths, and all three frontrunners – Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards – waffled on the question of whether states should allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Richardson, meanwhile, gave a definite answer and backed it up by pointing out that New Mexico began granting licenses to undocumented immigrants in 2003. And, after Obama had been highly critical of the president, Richardson took the opportunity to take a shot at Obama and the other Democratic presidential candidates, who are all members of Congress.
“Yes, and I did it,” he said, referring to the state’s driver’s license program. “You know why, because the Congress – I noticed Barack mentioned the president – but the Congress also failed miserably to reform immigration.”
In previous debates, Richardson sometimes sat back and watched others break into the discussion. Other times, he tried to jump in, but looked overanxious and often gave answers that didn’t quite make sense. This time, he jumped into several exchanges without looking overanxious, and he gave clear answers.
Richardson inserted himself during the first few minutes, while the others were engaged in the nastiest attacking of any Democratic candidate debate thus far, and his words appeared to help diffuse the situation, which quickly calmed down.
“It seems that John wants to start a class war. It seems that Barack wants to start a generational war. It seems that Sen. Clinton, with all due respect on her plan on Iraq, doesn’t want to end the war,” Richardson said. “All I want to do is give peace a chance.”
Setting himself apart
He even got a shot in at Dennis Kucinich, in an off-the-cuff way that was unusual for a candidate who has become known in these debates for canned answers. Kucinich said several times during the forum the he was the only one on the stage to vote against certain issues – including the Iraq war and the Patriot Act – and he was, technically, correct. But his words implied that every other candidate was on the other side and ignored the fact that Richardson didn’t vote at all because he’s not a member of Congress.
When the moderator, during a question to Richardson, identified the governor as the only one on stage who opposes some sort of border fence, Kucinich protested that he was wrong.
Kucinich also opposes a border fence, but he didn’t get to say that because Richardson cut him off and told Kucinich to quit lumping him in with the senators who voted for the war and other issues. He pointed out that he’s a governor, not a member of Congress, and took another shot at the other candidates in pointing out that Congress has an 11-percent approval rating – one that’s lower than the approval ratings for the vice president and HMOs, Richardson claimed.
Then he turned back to his experience as a governor to answer the question on immigration.
“I’m the only one that’s dealt with the immigration issue directly,” Richardson said.
His new assertiveness was apparent in the fact that he spoke more than he has in previous debates. According to Chris Dodd’s campaign, Richardson got significantly more time than Edwards – 14 minutes and six seconds for the governor to Edwards’ 10 minutes and 43 seconds. Clinton spoke for 15 minutes and 55 seconds, and Obama spoke for 18 minutes and nine seconds.
And on the New York Times’ live blog of the debate, there was a decent amount of praise for Richardson. One blogger even said Richardson won the debate.
The point: This was easily Richardson’s best debate performance of the campaign. It couldn’t have come at a better time. There are 49 days until the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 3 and, as I reported on Thursday, Richardson is gaining in polls there for the first time in months.
Maybe it was because he’s more comfortable in the West. Maybe it was the fact that it was his birthday. Maybe he’s finally finding his stride.