Richardson for President?

There is new evidence that Bill Richardson might run for President in 2008, according to a Washington Post article:

After a dinner of lamb and wild rice and crepes suzette, Richardson held forth.

"You gotta read my book," he said a few times, and then he explained why governors were the future for Democrats. Then: "Keep your powder dry," Richardson was quoted by one guest as saying, "I'm running, and you can tell people that." Two others recalled him saying: "I'm going in 2008."

The group was "a little surprised," said one attendee. "It wasn't billed as an announcement dinner." Well, sometimes things happen.

A lot more attention as been focused of late on Democratic Governors.  I truly think that the Democrats will have a better opportunity to take back the White House if they nominate a Governor heading into the general election.  Proven executive leaders like Mark Warner, Bill Richardson and Tom Vilsack come to mind.

Comments

[Stephen Fox]

LETTER TO EDITOR, SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN
December 12, 2007

A talented, bright, challenging, tireless, energetic and pacifist governor can take care of problems in New Mexico, as well as make profound efforts to achieve international peace in the world at large, without neglecting serious problems confronting New Mexico.

I commend Richardson for this extraordinary effort, which may bring success when all else has failed. Critics of such efforts should keep in mind the alternative, the way that George Bush exacerbated and continually expanded the conflict in Iran, so that he could achieve victory in his grudge match, and so that Halliburton and other corporate buddies of the Bushes could grow richer.

This is not what Richardson is about. He is sincere and was willing to make
this arduous trip to Sudan and to many other places, to achieve what may be
a long lasting peace, WHEN ALMOST EVERY OTHER HEAD OF STATE, including Kofi
Annan, and most of the hand-off armchair rulers and "experts" in Europe, at
the United Nations, and the ostensibly civilized portions of the world,
essentially gave up, turned their back, ignored the genocide, and let the
destruction and killing continue, unabated.

This obliviousness to serious world problems may yet prove to be the
downfall of western industrial society and the leading industrialized
nations. Fortunately, there is one exception to such calumny, recalcitrance, and indifference: William Blaine Richardson III!

Richardson will continue to do these kinds of trips in the name of
diplomacy, an old fashioned concept which still actually works and works
quite well. Pundits, experts, professors, and international heads of state would do well to consider how one person like Richardson can jump into a
huge and seemingly unsolvable international conflict, and bring a temporary resolution and perhaps an eventual long lasting peace. This is commendable; this is rare in today's setting; this is exemplary.

New Mexicans cognizant of what is really going on here, should take the
time to further commend Governor Richardson in person, by email, by fax, and by telephone.

_______________

I must correct a serious error in my prior comment. Kofi Annan has done a lot to prevent genocide in Darfur, like asking for UN troops to go there, to which Al-Bashir has objected. Kofi is no arm chair ruler at all; although he was silent on the genocide in Rwanda, he learned a powerful lesson after that from the critics that faulted his inaction. President Al Bashir will probably continue to resist UN troops in the Sudan, although Richardson may have partially succeeded in that regard.

Interesting that the ABQ Journal zeroed in on not getting UN troops accepted in Sudan: however, if you examine the joint press release between Richardson and Al Bashir, which is posted on the Governor's website, you can see what considerable progress he made.

To dismiss all of Richardson's efforts as "insincere" or as somehow indifferent to New Mexicans rather reminds me of the Lilluputians complaining about the size of the person they had tied down in Gulliver's Travels by Swift. That is not something I can see or find fault with at all vis a vis Bill Richardson. I meant every word: he should be commended for an extraordinary effort IN AN ARENA WHEREIN ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE HAS FAILED.

Santa Fe is going to host an INternational Peace Conference in May, 2007: I want that Peace Conference to be a tremendous success, which it would most certainly be if the Governor were to participate and call in many of his friends and colleagues from the UN days, to invite them to come to Santa Fe. So far, the guest speakers are going to include Arun Gandhi, MK Gandhi's Grandson; Jody Williams, Nobel Laureate for her work in preventing the use of landmines, and Rigoberto Menchu Tum, Nobel Laureate for her work in exposing and preventing indigenous genocide in Guatemala.

Those are great names, but we need a lot more political and amabassadorial and foreign service types as speakers, some UN Ambassadors, perhaps Peter Wirth's uncle Tim Wirth, President of the United Nations Association of the United States; perhaps Knut Hammarskjold, Dag's nephew, perhaps Kim Campbell, the first woman Prime Minister of Canada; many many more.

Why should this Peace Conference be so unambitious? With Governor Richardson's help, it would bring people from all over the world, and make Santa Fe even more important than it already is....perhaps we could have a branch of the United Nations Peace University in Costa Rica built in Santa Fe, an idea I have been musing about since 1997.

If you agree, send a note to Governor Richardson and ask him to invite all of his friends to speak at the International Peace Conference in May. Thank you.

Stephen Fox