{"id":1644,"date":"2007-04-26T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-27T01:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/richardsons-face-shone-more-than-his-performance\/"},"modified":"2007-04-26T19:47:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T01:47:00","slug":"richardsons-face-shone-more-than-his-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/richardsons-face-shone-more-than-his-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson’s face shone more than his performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I predicted today that Bill Richardson<\/a> would shine at tonight\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate debate. It turns out the only aspect of the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> governor\u2019s performance that shone was the sweat on his face.<\/p>\n

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

\n

I almost hate to say it. My intent isn\u2019t to be mean. It\u2019s to be honest. That\u2019s my job.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying he did poorly. He did alright. But John Edwards<\/a> and Barack Obama<\/a> also did fine, and Hillary Clinton<\/a> was the one who shone.<\/p>\n

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

I didn\u2019t expect it from her, but Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> showed that she is the veteran of what is an impressive Democratic candidate field. She was calm throughout the debate, was clear, knowledgeable and concise in her answers, and smiled when it was appropriate but appeared serious when that was what was needed.<\/p>\n

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

Obama revealed his political inexperience when he fell into a trap set by Dennis Kucinich<\/a> and got into an emotional spat about when war is justified. He failed frequently to answer the questions that were asked, instead giving overly verbose and meandering answers.<\/p>\n

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

By contrast, the veteran Clinton, given the opportunity to take a shot a Rudy Giuliani<\/a> for attacking Democrats this week, refused. She would have validated his candidacy if she fired back, and she knew it.<\/p>\n

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

Still, Obama was generally calm, cool and youthful. Many will like that.<\/p>\n

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

Edwards, who ranks third in the polls, did fine. He was cool. He often answered the questions asked, but didn\u2019t always. I think he remains in third place after the debate.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s performance started out on shaky ground. He was the first to be introduced and, when the camera went to him, he was looking off to the side with an open mouth that made him appear as if he wasn\u2019t paying attention. He quickly looked to the camera a second later.<\/p>\n

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

I don\u2019t think he smiled throughout the debate. He used a lot of wide hand gestures that made him appear caffeinated, and he sweated profusely \u2013 more than anyone else. His face literally glistened.<\/p>\n

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

He was the first to speak longer than the time allotted and, though others followed suit, he did it more than anyone else, and had to be forcibly cut off several times. For the most part, the others needed only gentile prodding to stop talking.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> failed to adequately explain why he thinks the attorney general\u2019s ethnicity should determine whether he should be fired after saying last week he hadn\u2019t called for Alberto Gonzales\u2019 ouster because he was Hispanic. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> recovered with a nice one-liner about being an honest man, however.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think the American people want candor,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want blow-dried candidates who are perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> got a couple of nice plugs from moderator Brian Williams about his foreign-policy experience and being the NRA\u2019s favorite candidate from either party. But Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s attempt to separate himself from the others was completely overshadowed by the antics and energy of Kucinich and Gravel, the only two to clearly identify significant policy differences they have with the others.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> might have won some likeability points for appearing to be the candidate who didn\u2019t respect the authority of the moderator, and he admitted during the debate to being impatient and aggressive, which might impress some who are tired of the government\u2019s red tape.<\/p>\n

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

He came across as the experienced, intelligent candidate he is, but so did just about everyone else. Overall, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> didn\u2019t step above the second tier of candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I predicted today that Bill Richardson would shine at tonight\u2019s Democratic presidential candidate debate. It turns out the only aspect of the New Mexico governor\u2019s performance that shone was the sweat on his face. I almost hate to say it. My intent isn\u2019t to be mean. It\u2019s to be honest. That\u2019s my job. I\u2019m not […]<\/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-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644","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=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}