The Bill Richardson Blog

The Week Before, Boston

Jeff Gulko emails and asks me if I am coming to New Hampshire on Saturday. Sure, I say, but will I get to actually meet the Gov? Yes, he says. Come along to all the events and help me out. So I do. It’s clear this campaign is still trying to save money – Jeff, who is not on the payroll, emails me before Saturday and asks if I know a photographer who might come for free. He eventually enlists his uncle.

I print out Google directions and labor with my husband to free our car from where it is frozen solid into the street. I finally “succeed” when our landlord pushes us out with his pickup truck. Too tired and cold to bother clearing the rest of the ice covering the car, I just leave it.

Young Dems Breakfast, Manchester: 9 AM

I drive up to Manchester bright and early Saturday morning, the hood and trunk of my car still frosted hard with ice from the storm. I arrive at Jewell and the Beanstalk, a local coffee shop, before 8:30 and park next to what I hope is the curb, as there’s too much snow to tell.

Inside, I share a booth with a local man who’s thrilled about a Richardson story in the New Hampshire Union-Leader in which the Gov calls for the Congress to do something stronger than a nonbinding resolution to get us out of Iraq. He goes on and on about Bush’s megalomania while I eat mixed berry oatmeal. Eventually, Jeff, his uncle, some volunteers, and the New Hampshire Young Dems folks arrive and set up mailing lists and swag. People start arriving. Everything looks good.

An older couple stops in “We’re not young,” the woman says to Katie, the Young Dems head. “But can we stay anyway?” Katie smiles and says yes, and points them to the free muffins. One woman comes in with a baby in a blue Snugli – the youngest Dem, I suppose.

Then people won’t stop arriving. At five to nine, every seat in the small restaurant is taken, and the place is full of people standing in tight clumps. Cameras and rolls of stickers promoting the NH primary as first in the nation appear. Apparently all the major candidates have been wearing them except one, which from the overheard conversation sounds like John Edwards.

The bell over the door rings as more people come, and more. The staff look a little worried, but let every one in. I wedge myself into a corner with Evan, a volunteer. Evan says he just saw Barack Obama speak, and while he sounded wonderful, Evan left not being sure what exactly he had just said.

Finally, the Gov and his staff walk up the icy sidewalk outside. Although it’s freezing, the Gov isn’t wearing a coat, just a blue blazer and khaki pants. He has clearly lost 5 or 10 pounds from early in the year, and gives off a strong “dad” vibe for some reason. As he comes into the restaurant he starts shaking hands, beginning from the person on his left, which is me. He gives me a big hearty handshake.

Jeff steps forward and whispers that this is the blogger he mentioned yesterday, from Harvard. “Yes,” I say. “And the Bill Richardson Blog!” “Oh, great!” says the Gov. “Hi there.” And then he is gone in the crowd, shaking hands right and left. I stand on my toes to see him where he finally ends up, behind the register. It is packed like a rock concert in here.

His talk goes over incredibly well. The Gov says that in this election, there is a lot at stake for us young people, because of the federal deficit, climate change, and the future of Social Security. He hammers the importance of both international diplomacy and a broad new energy policy, two areas on which he sounds loose and expert, like he has no talking points but is instead speaking straight from his own experience. He is. He proposes we reduce our dependence on foreign oil from 65% to 10% in ten years, and gets some raised eyebrows and loud applause. I am happy to hear him mention incentives for solar roofs and green buildings.

The Gov takes as many questions as his staff will let him, and then a couple more – a recurring theme for the day. He speaks of fiscal discipline, of reinstituting pay-go, clamping down on earmarks and corporate welfare, and shifting budget priorities from war to human needs. The crowd is loving this, especially the ones who had been passing out a red pen with a pull-out chart of our current war-centric budget. Finally, Richardson asks the crowd to not get caught up in the other candidates who are “a little more glamorous, a little better looking than me – but not much,” and gets a laugh.

The crowd pours out of the café murmuring. “I liked him,” I hear one woman say. “Very sincere.” “Well, that was refreshing,” I hear someone else say. I look for Jeff to tell me how I can help out next. The Gov finishes a quick TV appearance and comes toward me.

“Harvard Law School, eh!” he says. I smile, and open my mouth, but Jeff is on a mission to not allow any more time-stealing chat. “She’ll be at the next event,” he apologizes, and the Gov is hustled into his SUV and onto Concord.

In the chaos, though, they have left behind Pablo Duran, the Gov’s New Hampshire political director. He looks a bit bereft. “Here’s how you can help,” says Jeff. “Give Pablo a ride to the Concord speech!”

Ed Morrissey is a major conservative blogger whose piece about Richardson has been getting a lot of linkage the last couple days. The gist: Uh-oh, this guy could take us DOWN in 2008:

However, the punditry and the Democrats may just be overlooking the one candidate that the Republicans should fear the most and, perhaps, Clinton should as well.

The Democrats certainly have no other candidates with Richardson’s experience and his certified centrist appeal.

Neither do the Republicans have anyone in their committed field of candidates who can match this resume, either. And that should worry the GOP, if Richardson gets close.

The GOP has a significant edge in experience at the moment, but it is an edge that will evaporate if Richardson takes the Democratic nomination. Will the Democrats be smart enough to take advantage of it?

Yes! Let’s do it.

It wasn’t that long ago that the National Review also conceded the sheer kick-ass-ness of Richardson. And I’ve had some personal conversations with Republicans where they say Richardson is so impressive that he’s the only guy they could see themselves crossing the aisle for if the GOP nominates a socially conservative nutjob.

Not because Bill’s conservative. He’s a moderate Democrat who loves the environment, renewable energy, kids’ health, investments in education, and the rest. Because he’s such a skilled leader.

Spread the word, guys: The GOP’s worst nightmare in 2008 is a guy named Bill Richardson.

You might see us talk about “western strategy” or “western values” from time to time (or all the time, if you head over to Western Democrat.) You might ask, what are these western values? Wearing boots? Bolo ties? Nachos? Well, nachos are great, but so is this roundup from Governor Richardson’s inaugural address Monday:

We’ve stayed true to our Western values -

* our belief in hard work and self-reliance,
* our respect for our land and water,
* our bonds of family and community,
* and our insistence on responsibility.

And we’ve always remembered that our diverse heritage is our common strength.

I like that a lot. And showing that he means that last part, the Gov was sworn in by the governor of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, the first time a tribal leader has sworn in the governor. (My ancestors include Pueblos from New Mexico, so that made me smile.)

Well, it’s official: John Edwards is in the race.

We at the BRB like John Edwards. He’s very smart, talented, has a big heart, really cares about economic justice. He’s not my guy, because I don’t know much about his foreign policy, or if he has the chops to handle the international problems America faces, and while I like the policy ideas I’ve heard from him, they all sound wildly expensive and I want the Democratic Party to continue to be one that actually cares about fiscal discipline.

Right now I want expertise over charisma, and this also explains why I will not be jumping on the Obama train any time soon. But John Edwards is more appealing than many in the race, so I wish him well.

If you want to see exactly what I’m talking about regarding expertise, check out the link the Richardson bloggers have been sharing: the Gov on Road to the White House on Sunday. I watched his entire speech in Manchester with great admiration. The Gov isn’t reading off his notes about energy, foreign policy, and education – he’s just talking about stuff he’s known about forever. Meaty. Funny. Specific. And yup – presidential.

A quick hit from our friends at the New Hampshire Union Leader:

Our Bible said David actually defeated Goliath, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, among others, must read the same one. He told this newspaper earlier this week that underdogs can win in New Hampshire.

He said he knows the media’s “not taking me seriously right now. I know the pundits aren’t.’’ But he said he doesn’t want to “peak’’ right now anyway.

How about that? Someone who doesn’t think he should “peak’’ a year or so before the first primary and nearly two years before the general Presidential election!

This in response to Bayh’s dropping out and citing “too many Goliaths” in the field. Let me put some context around this story. New Hampshirites love their first primary, and they love it being relevant. They also love the idea that no one tells them who to vote for and that they’ll make up their own minds about everything. Many a Concordian has bristled at the idea that the Presidential race is already set and their primary is nothing but a rubber stamp.

Here’s my contribution to the state challenge. I’m from California, but haven’t started a CA for Richardson blog because I haven’t lived there for 4 years and I’m hoping someone closer to the action will jump in. But I think I can still make the case!

1) All Things Earth: The California economy, and the nation’s, for that matter, is dependent on the load of agricultural products that come out of the San Joaquin Valley. Energy use, water conservation, pollution, and balance with the gorgeous mountains, rivers, deserts, and forests of California are constant battles, especially with our predeliction toward biblical natural disasters and tendency to take tons of energy from neighboring states.

Bill Richardson has the know-how to contribute to these policies, as a former Secretary of Energy, as a man backing bold renewable energy and efficiency policies in New Mexico, as a governor who supports conservation efforts and the Water Innovation Fund and fought excessive oil-and-gas exploration. He’s a pro.

2) Immigration: California gets a quarter of the whole country’s immigration flow, and just less than half of all Mexican immigrants live in California. The giant marches in Los Angeles last year show that people want a humane solution to our broken policies. Bill Richardson has been an outspoken yet moderate leader on these issues, supporting better enforcement and funds along the border to deal with the drug crime, property damage, and human smuggling and exploitation that illegal immigration spawns, and also a guest worker program to acknowledge our need for unskilled labor, decrease illegal flows, and bring more migrant workers into the legal economy where we can monitor taxes, competition, and working conditions. A guest worker program is crucial for California’s agricultural industry, where when illegal immigration flows dropped due to heavy security after 9/11, there were shortages during harvests. Richardson understands the middle road here.

3) Financial Management: California is pretty spotty on this one. In NM, Richardson cut taxes, saved millions through government efficiency initiatives, and kept a balanced budget and big budget surpluses. He’s a Democrat folks! California and the nation need this kind of financial discipline.

4) An Understanding of Diversity: California is like the nation: giant, incredibly diverse, lots of political squabbles to work through. Bill Richardson has been an international diplomat, a Member of Congress, and an executive, among others, and in those jobs he genuinely worked with people not like him – whether with Republicans in purple-state New Mexico or the dictators of North Korea and Iraq. That’s a guy who could apply himself to the challenging problems of California much better than many of the ‘08 hopefuls.

Richardson for California.

Yesterday, without much fanfare, Gov. Richardson stated that he will be supporting Ned Lamont in the Connecticut race. While he called Joe a “good friend,” he also said that Lieberman should “respect the will of the voters and step aside.” There are a couple of implications to this.

At first blush, this seems like the safe move, right? But no. Not quite. The safest move would be to say nothing. Gov. Richardson is not in the Senate, he will probably never be in the Senate, and he is not involved with the DSCC in any official way. His main jobs in 2006 are (1) get re-elected himself, which is essentially done, and (2) help more Democratic governors get elected, as the chair of the DGA. So if he wanted to, he certainly had the option of staying silent.

Notably, Ken Salazar (D-CO), made the opposite decision. Salazar was being responsive to his own fortunes in Colorado. (Wrongly, I think, but whatever.)

Richardson is being responsive to the demands of the national party. Quite simply, defection from Lamont is not something the progressive netroots will forgive. Backing Lieberman in the primary is one thing, but the netroots feel they’ve earned a win and deserve the spoils. Richardson, as a matter of political necessity, is backing Lamont because he is going to need the netroots in a little while.

This is low key. But it’s supposed to be. Just like those meetings with bloggers at Yearly Kos, in Washington, in South Carolina. Richardson is laying the groundwork so that, in about six or nine months when it’s announcement time, there will be a structure there and a relationship. And it seems to be working:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson scores an A+ on the “guy you’d wanna drink a beer with” Presidential litmus test. . . . I expect he’ll be one of the leading anti-Hillary candidates among the 2008 Democratic Presidential contenders.

That’s from one of the SC bloggers Richardson met with.

I guess it would be cool if I did these at regular times. That would require me to be much more organized than I actually am. Anyway, three nice news items from the last couple days:

- EVERYBODY thinks Bush’s impending veto of the stem-cell research bill is a terrible idea, including Nancy Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Because it is.) Six Democratic governors made sure Bush knew they thought it was terrible, too, and sent Senate leaders Reid and Frist a strong letter encouraging them to scrape up the votes to override a veto. Was Richardson among the six? You bet.

By the way, if your Senator is on the fence, please call him or her up. This is such a ridiculous thing to be happening. We’re losing knowledge and medical advances, and our chief executive wants to use his first veto ever to pander to the far right. It really ticks me off. Anyway.

- NM Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish has a fact-filled editorial in the Albuquerque Tribune rebutting criticisms of the “Year of the Child” and its accomplishments.

- “Bill Richardson” is synonymous among Utah Navajos with “awesome advocate for Native rights,” enough that comparing their new governor to Richardson is a big compliment. We haven’t talked about Native American issues much on the blog – this is a reminder to me that we should. Suffice it to say that Richardson knows WAY more about this stuff than the general crop of 2008 possibilities, and I hadn’t even considered that before. Hmm.

WaPo’s got it:

Spend less time opposing and more time proposing how we can fix the mess that the GOP leadership in Washington has put us in. Democratic governors are succeeding in some of the reddest states in the country. The national party needs to adopt their mainstream message.

Bam, baby.

It’s advice so catchy and correct it even rhymes. Less opposing, more proposing. We’re smarter than the other guys–now let’s prove it. I think we’re doing it, and November is going to be great.