{"id":1295,"date":"2007-02-22T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-22T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/like-he-has-done-so-many-times-before-richardson-stood-out-in-nevada-by-being-the-peacemaker\/"},"modified":"2007-02-22T13:37:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-22T19:37:00","slug":"like-he-has-done-so-many-times-before-richardson-stood-out-in-nevada-by-being-the-peacemaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/like-he-has-done-so-many-times-before-richardson-stood-out-in-nevada-by-being-the-peacemaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Like he has done so many times before, Richardson stood out in Nevada by being the peacemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Though Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> was his typical casual, confident and friendly self during Wednesday\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate forum in Nevada<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, one thing about him stood out: <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While other candidates were taking shots at each other, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was playing peacemaker.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The three frontrunners for the party\u2019s 2008 nomination spent Wednesday fighting, with Hillary Clinton<\/a> and Barack Obama<\/a> trading barbs in the media and John Edwards<\/a> taking cheap shots at Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> during the forum. Read about the Clinton\/Obama incident by clicking here<\/a> and the Edwards comments by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, some of the second-tier candidates, Dennis Kucinich<\/a> and Mike Gravel<\/a>, repeatedly took shots at their own party and Washington politics.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> took a different approach.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst we can do is tear each other down,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:city> said in calling on Obama to denounce a donor\u2019s attack on Clinton<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. He also called for all candidates to sign a pledge that they wouldn\u2019t attack each other, but would save that for the general election against the Republican nominee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That was the quote from Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that made it into most national press articles about the forum. It wasn\u2019t the first time Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has asked for such a pledge from the Democratic candidates but, on the day that the frontrunners\u2019 tiffs exploded, it had a lot more meaning.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> knew it. He said at the forum that the public is tired of negative attacks, and he\u2019s right. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> capitalized on the moment, and only Joe Biden<\/a> responded by accepting his challenge.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Beyond that, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> didn\u2019t stand out much, but he did appear competent and held his own. He was dressed more casually than the others, subtly setting himself aside as a westerner. But he received less applause than the frontrunners. He didn\u2019t engage the audience as well as Chris Dodd<\/a>, Gravel or Kucinich. He didn\u2019t convey his plan for responding to the chaos in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> or his ideas about foreign policy as well as Biden. He and Tom Vilsack<\/a>, the other candidate with gubernatorial experience, both emphasized the difference that executive experience would make, and both were effective.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> stood out by being the peacemaker.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why not? It\u2019s what he\u2019s built a career doing. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> isn\u2019t the most knowledgeable foreign-affairs player in the nation, but he has seen so much success in negotiating because he is willing to go to places others won\u2019t. He has the ability to treat others with respect even when they are unrespectable. He is personable and willing to bargain to get what he wants.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As governor, he has displayed the same ability to win consensus on domestic issues, in some cases through compromise and in other instances through bullying. He has dominated policy and politics in a way the state has never before experienced. He has a unique ability to bring people together to get things done.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> made reference to that during Wednesday\u2019s forum in calling for the party to select someone who can work in a bipartisan fashion to \u201cbring this nation together.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Like him or not, compromise and peacemaking are Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s greatest strengths, though he is sometimes criticized for compromising when others think he should take a stand. Other times, he isn\u2019t afraid to play hardball to build consensus, which has also earned him criticism. He\u2019s made many enemies over the years. Who in politics hasn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But he\u2019s made a lot more friends.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In case you missed it, here is video of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s portion of Wednesday\u2019s forum, in two parts, with Part 1 at top and Part 2 below it. For video of the other candidates, click here<\/a>.<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though Gov. Bill Richardson was his typical casual, confident and friendly self during Wednesday\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate forum in Nevada, one thing about him stood out: While other candidates were taking shots at each other, Richardson was playing peacemaker. The three frontrunners for the party\u2019s 2008 nomination spent Wednesday fighting, with Hillary Clinton and Barack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}