From the mouth of Markos himself:

Richardson, in just the last couple of months, has brokered landmark deals in Darfur and North Korea — efforts that had stymied the Bush Administration through two terms. There is no one in American politics today more respected and accomplished on foreign policy than Bill Richardson.

Compare this to Hillary Clinton, who talks about “ending the war”, yet the fine print of her plan shows she’d keep up to 75,000 American troops in Iraq.

Richardson’s clear plan (to get out of Iraq by the end of calendar year, without leaving behind a “residual force” to continue a failed war on a smaller scale) is a sharp contrast to his primary opponents. No one can accuse the man of having an unsophisticated mind when it comes to foreign policy, and no one can accuse him of being insufficiently “serious.” While one- and two-term Senators play hawk in D.C., Richardson is pushing us back from nuclear catastrophe and demanding we get out of Iraq.

Perhaps Clinton wants to leave tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq because she doesn’t want to look “weak” on foreign policy; maybe, as I tend to think, she really believes it. Who knows? The brightest minds in our party and our nation’s most accomplished super-diplomat, though, are all on the same page: Out of Iraq. Now.

Not only did Bill Richardson’s North Korea trip have some good results in terms of the country’s nuclear program, it came up big for international relief agencies, too. The L.A. Times has more, and the end of the New York Times article has specifics on how the World Food Program was about to pack up and leave a lot of hungry people behind:

Last month, North Korea had given a Dec. 31 deadline for foreigners working for private aid groups to leave and had ordered the World Food Program to change its aid from “humanitarian” to “development.”

“The North Koreans basically reversed their position on the aid issue, basically the date of expulsion is now not operational,” said Mr. Richardson. “I said, ‘You’ve got school lunches for kids.’ They said, ‘O.K., that’s development.’ ”

The World Food Program will be allowed to keep 30 foreign aid workers, slightly fewer than their current allotment.

On Tuesday, Richard Ragan, the American who directs aid efforts for this United Nations agency, said the personnel cuts were forcing him to prepare to close all of the program’s 19 food-enrichment factories in North Korea. The program helps to feed about one-third of North Korea’s 22 million people.

Megadittoes (look, an outdated Limbaugh joke) to Ian’s observation yesterday about the advantage of having a Democrat conduct weapons negotiations; it’s not that I think Republicans hate food for schoolchildren, but I’m more confident that a guy like Richardson has “check on humanitarian workers” as part of his agenda. Good work, Governor.

First of all, Slate has a great background on the Gov’s history with N.K. that everyone should check out. Gov. Richardson has negotiated with the North Koreans in the past, which does some explaining as to why they want to deal with him again–and why the Bush administration has been forced to admit that in this instance, it’s going to take an experienced Democrat to solve the North Korean problem.

It’s important to remember that the North Korean government has asked, several times, to deal with Gov. Richardson directly:

A few times in the past year, as the prospects for arms talks have soared and plummeted, the North Koreans have invited Richardson to visit, most recently in May, according to the governor’s spokesmen.

But of course, mindful of national security concerns, the Governor has declined until now. (It would be pretty strange for a Governor to freelance national security policy, even if he would do a good job at it; Richardson didn’t go until the Bush administration asked him to, essentially.) Fred Kaplan is very optimistic about this trip, saying that if a deal is going to happen, this is a time that seems ripe; everyone needs it to. The prospect is almost too exciting to think about. To have Bill Richardson be able to take credit for a deal on nuclear weapons with North Korea… I can barely even speculate. No, I won’t curse it, you can’t make me curse it by speculating.

Needless to say you should check out the Slate story. Also yesterday, there was a good story about the Governor touring nuclear facilities in North Korea. Makes it clear the kind of high-level access that’s being given here and also gives a little detail on the “carrot” the Governor is dangling. And finally, courtesy of KOBTV, a great quote that shows why you want Democrats negotiating security policy:

“I am also going to try to help with the situation in connection with humanitarian issues relating to the possibility that some of the humanitarian relief agencies may have to leave,” Richardson added. “I want to make sure that the vulnerable and children are not harmed.”

Securing nuclear weapons is the top priority in North Korea. But securing a better life for the people who live there counts for a lot, too. Kids don’t get to pick what country they’re born in. I’m glad we’ve got Gov. Richardson down there, that’s all I’ll say.

I haven’t forgotten about The Big Mo’, and will be updating with a new edition in the coming days; I just sense we’re in the middle of a big spike in Richardson media attention and I want to ride that for a little while before getting all reflective and analytical about it. Anyway, exciting times.