{"id":2076,"date":"2007-08-08T07:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-08T13:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-gives-an-unmemorable-debate-performance\/"},"modified":"2007-08-08T07:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-08T13:34:00","slug":"guv-gives-an-unmemorable-debate-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-gives-an-unmemorable-debate-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv gives an unmemorable debate performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> was the only Democratic presidential candidate who wasn\u2019t involved in the fighting that characterized Tuesday\u2019s candidate forum in Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Those who support candidates who don\u2019t attack were probably impressed but, for many, it probably meant he wasn\u2019t noticed at all. <\/p>\n

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

The controversy-hungry media gave little mention to Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in articles about the debate. His answers didn\u2019t demand much attention.<\/p>\n

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

Frontrunner Hillary Clinton<\/a> was assaulted repeatedly by Barack Obama<\/a> and John Edwards<\/a>. Joe Biden<\/a> and Chris Dodd<\/a> came to Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s defense with harsh words for her critics. Dennis Kucinich<\/a> attacked everyone. At one point, it seemed that everyone on stage except Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was going after Obama.<\/p>\n

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

The other Democrat in the race, Mike Gravel<\/a>, didn\u2019t attend.<\/p>\n

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

While Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has clearly dominated every other debate held thus far, this forum was different. She was attacked for previous comments defending lobbyists and, when asked about it, failed to answer the question. But all candidates, including Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, repeatedly failed to answer the questions that were asked. That, coupled with the fighting for which this debate will be remembered, makes it hard to declare a winner.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, as has been the case in most debates, was for some reason the last to be asked a question. His first was about the highway collapse in Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and whether privatizing roads is the answer. He responded by saying it\u2019s not, then saying he wants to eliminate the money Congress sets aside for earmarks and end \u201ccorporate welfare.\u201d He said those proposals, combined, would free up almost $100 billion annually to invest in infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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

He mentioned investing in \u201cnew forms of transportation\u201d such as commuter rails, in addition to rebuilding existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> didn\u2019t answer his second question about whether he would scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement or fix it, instead talking about what criteria he would have for future trade agreements.<\/p>\n

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

He got a free pass, however, because none of the NAFTA critics on stage or the moderator, MSNBC\u2019s Keith Oberman, seemed to know or care that he was the representative responsible for securing enough votes in the U.S. House of Representatives for approval of NAFTA in the mid-1990s. When Edwards took a shot at \u201cWashington<\/st1:state> insiders\u201d who negotiated NAFTA, he didn\u2019t mention Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Oberman gave Clinton<\/st1:city> time to respond to that attack, but not Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:city> also failed to answer a question about what he would do if, after he pulled U.S.<\/st1:country-region> troops out of Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, al-Qaida took control of that nation. However, none of the candidates answered the question.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson failed to answer a third question when a former manufacturing worker in Iowa asked what he would do to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States. The man was an Iraq<\/st1:country-region> veteran, and Richardson<\/st1:city> began what could have been a great answer by pointing out that he was recently in the man\u2019s hometown and met with others who had been laid off, like the veteran, when a Maytag plant moved to Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

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

Then, instead of answering the question about manufacturing, he botched his response by talking about improving the Veterans Administration and health care for veterans.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> tried to be the uniter on stage, saying, as he\u2019s done before, that any of the other candidates would make an excellent vice president and calling himself a healer who can bring the nation together. But his peace offerings were overshadowed by the war between the other candidates. Had Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s answers been more memorable, he might have stood out, but they weren\u2019t. He didn\u2019t even grab attention for having to be forcibly cut off by the moderator, something that has characterized his past debate performances.<\/p>\n

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

Not all agree with my analysis. NBC\u2019s Chuck Todd<\/a> wrote that Richardson<\/st1:city> \u201cis going to be the under-the-radar candidate; it\u2019s obvious; he\u2019s not getting involved in the bashing of Obama, Edwards and Clinton and that could pay dividends in Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

But the Washington Post\u2019s Chris Cillizza<\/a> didn\u2019t even mention Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> because he was captivated by fighting. And a live-blogging exchange on the Huffington Post<\/a> went like this after Richardson<\/st1:city> failed to answer the question about al-Qaida and Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>:<\/p>\n

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

John (7:37:50 PM):<\/span> Oh, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. He showed such promise.
Matt (7:38:08 PM):<\/span> Not Richardson\u2019s best showing on the Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> question.
John (7:38:17 PM):<\/span> He really does speak as if there is a big key sticking out of his back.
John (7:38:48 PM):<\/span> Wind him up and watch him go.<\/p>\n

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

You can watch the full debate by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson was the only Democratic presidential candidate who wasn\u2019t involved in the fighting that characterized Tuesday\u2019s candidate forum in Chicago. Those who support candidates who don\u2019t attack were probably impressed but, for many, it probably meant he wasn\u2019t noticed at all. The controversy-hungry media gave little mention to Richardson in articles about the […]<\/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-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","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=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}