Considering Bill Richardson

This journal will not endorse a presidential candidate this side of the conventions. In many respects the Democrats are spoiled for choice and the Republicans, except for Ron Paul, are saddled with losing two wars and an American city in the last seven years. Nevertheless, there is one man who isn’t getting the attention his resume deserves. Bill Richardson, the Democratic Governor of New Mexico, might just be the best qualified candidate, if not overqualified.

The nation feels a need for bipartisanship, largely because the GOP’s go-it-alone strategy has been a disaster while the Democrats are seen as too weak to stop a war when they hold a majority of both houses of Congress. On that score, Governor Richardson has said, “I was a deputy whip in the Clinton years getting votes. I built coalitions with Republicans, with churches, with community groups, with anybody to get something done.” When he was Congressman Richardson, he held town-hall meetings with constituents, close to 2,000 of them in a 10-year period.

As an executive, CNN reports, “During his first term as New Mexico governor, Richardson says, he made good on campaign promises to improve education, cut taxes, build a high-wage economy, develop a statewide water plan and make New Mexico safer by getting tough on drunken driving, domestic violence and sex crimes. He’s now in his second term. New Mexico has been a national leader in job growth and economic development, with 80,000 additional New Mexicans working since Richardson took office, campaign aides say. The state has a balanced budget and the highest budget reserves in state history.” The local papers have dubbed him “GovZilla” as a result, as good a title as the Governator in Sacramento. Sadly, New Mexico isn’t as important as California.

He also has said, “As a diplomat, I negotiated with foreign countries, brought countries together, brought hostages home, [arranged] cease fires. As secretary of energy, I know how to make us energy independent. I guess it's my direct experience, and I believe I’ve brought more change than any other candidate.” He’s talked to the North Koreans, the Cubans (in Spanish), the Sudanese rebels, and the genocidal regime in the Congo – and won concessions from them all.

American history is replete with candidates who could have been called the best president the nation never had: Henry Clay, Frederick Douglass, Eugene V. Debs, Wendell Wilkie, Adlai Stevenson, Jerry Brown, Bill Bradley to name but a few. Bill Richardson may be another of them. At the same time, with him in the Oval Office, one could go to sleep at night knowing that America wouldn’t be ashamed of itself the next morning. And it’s been a long time since anyone could say that.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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