Not that it’s much of my business, but the Democratic operatives on Capitol Hill I know say he shares the same liability as Bill Clinton. A few flings or maybe more outside the zipper of his marriage vows. The skeletons could be rattling any moment now once New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announces this Sunday that he is ready to create a presidential exploratory committee.
Superstars Hillary and Barack have sucked out most of the breathing room in polls of early nominating states, but this Bill may be the most qualified Dem jumping into the field. Once the campaign heats up, his competitors will doubtlessly open their mouths to exhale some controversial positions — either that or bore voters and drive them away. That just might be enough to create the wiggle room Richardson needs. (And he may even be able to wiggle. Richardson’s lost a ton of weight.)
Fourteen years in Congress, U.N. ambassador, Energy Department secretary and Western governor are the notches in his resume. The details are sometimes even more compelling. President Bush asked him to visit North Korea for talks on the nuclear program and he even more recently traveled to Sudan to broker a 60-day peace agreement and an end to the bloodshed in Darfur. He’s very good at that kind of work.
While in Congress, he visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests. In 1995, he travelled to Baghdad for lengthy and successful one-on-one negotiations with Saddam Hussein to free a few American hostages.
Putting aside his sticky problems with the Wen Ho Lee saga and baseball tales, Wonkette lists some interesting pluses:
* He’s half-Mexican and speaks Spanish. * For 23 of the past 27 years, governors have been president.* For 15 of those years, Western governors have been president.* Actually a talented politician.* Ran the DGA and almost ran the DNC, so knows the machine.* Born in California, raised in Mexico and Boston — he’s got the local angle everywhere but the South, which could be fixed with Edwards on the ticket as veep. * No war support vote to worry about. * Actually coherent on the get-out-of-Iraq plan, because it’s the Baker-Hamilton plan and he understands how to make it work with Syria and Iran. * Old enough to make Edwards and Obama look like kids, yet young enough to make McCain look like a crazy old man.
