Guv unveils new Iraq video, makes fundraising push

Gov. Bill Richardson is trying once again to set himself apart from the other Democratic presidential candidates on Iraq as he makes a push to raise $1 million this week, before the end of the third fundraising quarter of the year.

In a new, 4.5-minute video released today on his Web site, Richardson highlights his plan to withdraw all troops, including residual troops, from Iraq, and explains how that differs from the plans of all other major Democratic candidates, who would leave residual forces in the war-torn nation.

The ad is highly critical of frontrunners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, and also chastises the mainstream media. Richardson appears to have been given a free pass from the media despite breaking his promise to not engage in negative campaigning against his Democratic opponents, something he’s only started doing in recent weeks.

Ignoring that, and ignoring the fact that text that flashes across the screen during the video claims that Joe Biden wants to leave “20,0000” troops in Iraq (you read that right), the video effectively makes the case that Richardson’s Iraq plan is different and better than those of the other candidates.

But that “20,0000” bothers me. It’s just another example of sloppiness from the Richardson campaign. Who’s editing this stuff? Perhaps they’re already working on fixing it and by the time you watch the video (which is posted at the end of this article) it will say “20,000,” but I promise you, when they first released it, there was a huge typo.

(Not that I never have typos in my articles. Of course I do, and Richardson’s people are just as human as I am. But this just adds to the damage done by all of Richardson’s recent misstatements and makes the campaign appear unprofessional.)

At any rate…

The video comes as the end of the fundraising quarter approaches. Richardson has said he will likely raise a little less than the $7 million he raised in the second three months of the year but will still raise more than $6 million. He already has a little more than $100,000 toward his goal of collecting $1 million by Sunday, according to his Web site.

“Meeting – or beating – that goal will be pivotal in Bill Richardson’s race for the nomination,” Campaign Manager Dave Contarino wrote today in an e-mail to supporters.

All the candidates are making last-minute fundraising pushes this week, and Edwards also has a goal of raising $1 million. The former senator has raised more than $300,000 toward that goal, according to his Web site.

But back to the Iraq video. Here it is: