Gov. Bill Richardson condensed the contents of several speeches he gave during his presidential campaign into one foreign policy speech that he delivered today at New Mexico State University.
The result: I got the feeling that Richardson was testing a comprehensive speech on foreign policy that he will soon unveil to national audiences as he guns for whatever position he wants in a potential Obama administration – most likely vice president or secretary of state.
Richardson has given a number of policy speeches since he began his presidential campaign in January 2007, but he has delivered them in places like Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. When his office announced earlier this week that he would give a major policy speech in Las Cruces today, I wondered why, when he’s clearly trying to stay in the national spotlight, he would give such a speech in a place where it would attract little media attention.
Officially, Richardson was delivering a policy speech to the NMSU International Relations Institute, a new organization he’s trying to help build into a force along the border. Richardson talked about the institute and NMSU as he began his speech, and singled out the handful of former ambassadors who are part of the institute.
Then he got into the meat of his speech. And I began recalling familiar lines from speeches he gave on the campaign trail.
Richardson described the five major trends he said American foreign policy must address – terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the rapid rise of China and India and the resurgence of Russia, globalization, and the increase in poverty and health and environmental concerns around the globe.
He talked about the need to approach these problems in a humane way, with diplomacy and a strong military. He used the term “a new realism,” which he has used before to describe his vision for American foreign policy in the 21st Century.
He talked a lot about resolving differences, finding common ground and negotiating with dictators. He brought up his experiences as a diplomat and laid out, briefly, his vision for what needs to happen in Iraq. He talked about paying more attention to Africa and Latin America. He talked about immigration policy, and trashed the planned border fence.
“When have fences brought people together?” Richardson asked.
There was a common theme to Richardson’s speech: change through bringing people together. It sounded a lot like the message of the presidential candidate the governor has endorsed.
Richardson even referred to his presidential run, telling the several hundred people in attendance that he misses being on the campaign trail. He also complained about the nastiness that has consumed the Democratic presidential primary in recent weeks.
“Our two candidates are fighting each other. I wish they would stop,” Richardson said.
The speech lasted about 20 minutes. This is a man who admittedly wants to be on the campaign trail, and who is clearly gunning for a position in an Obama administration. I think Las Crucens got a glimpse today of the speech he’s going to use to sell himself.
You can read Richardson’s remarks, as they were prepared for delivery, by clicking here.
Gov. Bill Richardson condensed the contents of several speeches he gave during his presidential campaign into one foreign policy speech that he delivered today at