{"id":2360,"date":"2007-10-10T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-10T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/guv-shifts-focus-of-iraq-plan-accused-of-flip-flop\/"},"modified":"2007-10-10T12:04:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-10T18:04:00","slug":"guv-shifts-focus-of-iraq-plan-accused-of-flip-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/guv-shifts-focus-of-iraq-plan-accused-of-flip-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv shifts focus of Iraq plan, accused of flip-flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Is Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> flip-flopping on Iraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>? <\/p>\n

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

As his presidential campaign continues to stagnate and may actually be losing ground in polls, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is being accused by another Democratic presidential hopeful of doing just that.<\/p>\n

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

In comments published Tuesday in the Concord Monitor<\/a>, Richardson campaign spokesman Tom Reynolds de-emphasized the assertion Richardson has made the focus of his campaign in recent weeks that a complete American troop withdrawal from Iraq would take somewhere between six and eight months.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe timeline is less important than the end goal and the end result of withdrawing all troops from Iraq<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> and leaving no forces behind,\u201d Reynolds told the newspaper. \u201cYou cannot truly end the war and leave residual troops behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The comments come days after the Richardson<\/st1:city> campaign\u2019s co-chair in South Carolina<\/st1:state> quit because, he said, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s timeline is not achievable. Hillary Clinton<\/a>, Barack Obama<\/a>, John Edwards<\/a>, Joe Biden<\/a> and Chris Dodd<\/a> also say Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s plan is unrealistic, and several have said it\u2019s irresponsible and disingenuous.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:city> has gradually shifted focus in recent weeks from his own six-month timeline to the fact that those candidates won\u2019t promise to have troops out of Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> by 2013. In a policy speech<\/a> delivered Thursday, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he \u201cexpected more \u2013 much more \u2013 from my fellow Democrats. \u2026 they are wrong. Their plans simply will not end this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Dodd struck back on Tuesday, in response to the comments made to the Monitor, accusing Richardson<\/st1:city> in a news release<\/a> of flip-flopping on Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. The release stated that, months ago, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> supported a plan similar to that proposed by the other candidates. Then he began promoting the six-month timeline and attacking the others. Now he appears to be backing away, the release states.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe only thing Bill Richardson has been consistent about is his inconsistency,\u201d Dodd communications Director Hari Sevugan said in the release. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take clarity to stand up to this president and end this war \u2013 not equivocation and hedging.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The release also states that Richardson<\/st1:city> has been inconsistent on how many troops he would leave in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. He\u2019s currently promoting \u201czero\u201d troops, but he said as recently as July that he would leave as many as several thousand in Iraq<\/st1:country-region> to protect the U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> embassy and other diplomatic interests.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s defense<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Are those flip-flops? In an interview, Reynolds said they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cFrom the beginning, Gov. Richardson has had the clearest plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s plan has always been to leave no residual troops in Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, but to leave a Marine detachment to guard the embassy, Reynolds said. He said the detachment is not a continuation of troop occupation because such detachments guard every American embassy in the world.<\/p>\n

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

The plan has always included withdrawing all troops in six to eight months, Reynolds said, \u201cbut if conditions on the ground dictate, it might take a little longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think Dodd\u2019s attack is a desperate attempt because of his sagging poll numbers,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n

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

I looked at a number of Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s previous statements and, since he first formulated his Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> plan several months ago, he has remained fairly consistent on the points Reynolds made. But it\u2019s true that, before that plan was formulated, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> did appear, at one point, to endorse a plan similar to that being proposed by the other candidates.<\/p>\n

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

In addition, though the plan has remained consistent since mid-summer, different points have been emphasized. Though Reynolds now says the timeline isn\u2019t the most important point in the plan, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> emphasized it for weeks as the primary difference between his plan and those of the other candidates.<\/p>\n

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

The Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> campaign has not said until the last few days that his withdrawal timeline of six to eight months was flexible, at least in any statement I\u2019ve found. The reality is that Dodd\u2019s attack is spin, but so is Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

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

Why the shift?<\/span><\/p>\n

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

So why has the focus within Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s plan shifted? Probably for two reasons: Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s timeline has been repeatedly criticized as unrealistic and disingenuous, and the other candidates gave him a huge opening during the last debate when they would not commit to withdrawing all troops by the end of their first term if elected.<\/p>\n

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

Suddenly, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> didn\u2019t have to argue about whether a withdrawal would take six months or 18 months. He could point out that his plan would result in a full withdrawal years before the plans of the others.<\/p>\n

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

So Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> shifted focus to that. It\u2019s good strategy.<\/p>\n

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

The poll numbers<\/span><\/p>\n

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

However, the shift does open Richardson<\/st1:city> up to further attacks like Dodd\u2019s, and it doesn\u2019t appear to be helping Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in the polls. Recent polls in Iowa<\/a> and New Hampshire<\/a> indicate that weeks of stagnation in Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s poll numbers may actually be turning into a slow decline.<\/p>\n

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

New polls in Nevada<\/st1:state> and Arizona<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> also indicate a possible decline. The drop in polls in all four states are within the margin of error, so it\u2019s difficult to say for certain that there has been a drop in Richardson\u2019s support, but the polls in four states may indicate a trend.<\/p>\n

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

The new Nevada poll<\/a>, conducted by American Research Group, has Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> at 5 percent \u2013 down from 6 percent in the company\u2019s June poll. Though Obama and Edwards have also lost ground, Clinton<\/st1:city> has climbed in that time from 40 percent to 51 percent in the newest poll, and Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> remains solidly in fourth place.<\/p>\n

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

The new poll, conducted Friday through Tuesday, surveyed 600 likely Democratic caucus-goers and has a margin of error of 4 percent.<\/p>\n

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

The new Arizona poll<\/a> is even worse news for Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. After being at 9 percent and one point ahead of Edwards in the company\u2019s July poll, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has fallen to 7 percent while Edwards has climbed to 16 percent. Richardson<\/st1:city> is in fourth place and only three points ahead of Biden in the new poll, which was conducted the same day and has the same margin of error as the Nevada<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> poll.<\/p>\n

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

Reynolds said the campaign isn\u2019t concerned by the poll numbers, pointing out that John Kerry<\/a> and Edwards were in third and fourth place, respectively, in Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> at this point in 2003. They ended up finishing first and second.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cPolls are going to fluctuate,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cThe only poll that matters to us is caucus night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Gov. Bill Richardson flip-flopping on Iraq? As his presidential campaign continues to stagnate and may actually be losing ground in polls, Richardson is being accused by another Democratic presidential hopeful of doing just that. In comments published Tuesday in the Concord Monitor, Richardson campaign spokesman Tom Reynolds de-emphasized the assertion Richardson has made 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-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","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=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}