Archive for Bill Richardson

Oxfords, Boots and Flats

Posted by: Ion | September 24th, 2007 · 3:11 PM

From Tom Harkin’s Iowa cookout, different worlds in footwear:

(Tom Harkin)

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Running Against New York (and Rudy) on Guns

Posted by: Ion | August 21st, 2007 · 7:48 PM

(image: Atlantic Firearms)

Fred Thompson took a fierce swipe at Rudy Giuliani today, by way of gun rights (or the lack thereof) in New York City:

[T]he same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again. Last week, he created a bizarre justification to allow New York City to sue out-of-state gun stores that sold guns that somehow ended up in criminal hands in the Big Apple.
(Fred Thompson)

Thompson went on to state the obvious, that an armed public is better prepared to defend itself from criminal attack and thus tends to reduce crime by mere deterrence. A simple truth, but one that seems to require perpetual restatement, as there’s a substantial chunk of people out there, who by some contortion of the mind, believe you’re better protected from criminals by being disarmed and vulnerable.

Team Rudy’s response to FDT’s charges was inept, flailing and insulting:

“Those who live in New York in the real world — not on TV — know that Rudy Giuliani’s record of making the city safe for families speaks for itself,’’ said Katie Levinson, the Giuliani campaign’s communications director. “No amount of political theater will change that.”
(New York Times)

Republicans might be surprised to learn that New York City is a part of the “real world” at all, given its preposterously repressive and stupid gun laws. Laws which only encourage and facilitate crime, by leaving a public incapable of defending itself. Worse, gun laws which Thompson is perfectly correct in stating Rudy’s support for. Something that this response statement from his campaign, actually manages to defend you will note. It’s also hardly “theater,” that such policies are about as popular as a fried dead cat, in the legitimate real world which begins on the other side of New York’s city limits.

Perhaps no event demonstrated the efficacy of Thompson’s contention better, that an armed public serves as a material deterrent to crime, than the experience of Florida, after it passed its “shall issue” requirement in 1987. As Florida residents gobbled up concealed carry permits, car jackers became quite wary of attacking Florida motorists for fear of being shot. Surprising, I know.

Deterred, criminals focused their attacks on out-of-state and foreign tourists in rental cars, which at that time bore distinctive license plates. The problem became so lop-sided that Florida was forced to pass a law changing all rental car license plates to resemble their locally owned variety. Thus anti-gun Northeastern vacationers from New York –who visit South Florida by the truckload every year– passively benefited from the superior preparedness of local Floridians. An irony we can assume was rather typically lost on them.

All of this reawakens me to one of the gravest disadvantages of a Rudy candidacy: We have to run for New York, instead of against it. That’s a problem no Republican campaign for president has had to realistically face since the 1960s, with Nelson Rockefeller’s spectacularly unwelcome candidacy. I for one hope that come November, we’re not in a position to have to defend the draconian and unconstitutional policies of NYC, against someone like Bill Richardson, who carries a pistol everywhere he goes. That won’t be pretty in the real world or the theater.

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The Wall

Posted by: Ion | July 20th, 2007 · 5:57 PM

Three things about this clip, one Richardson is dead wrong about the wall being comparable to th Berlin Wall. Two, he’s right that it will be totally ineffective without more personnel to interdict illegals. Three, this is a perfect example of something we’ve discussed here previously: how much better Bill is at small venue, old-style interpersonal campaigning than most of the other Democratic candidates. That works well in NH and Iowa.

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A Macaca Moment for Bill Richardson

Posted by: Ion | July 14th, 2007 · 12:25 AM

This is just uncanny:

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said Thursday his use of a Spanish word that some contend is a slur against homosexuals was meant to be playful but apologized to anyone who was offended.

[…]

Richardson replied in Spanish that if the staffer believes that, then he is a “maricon.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says the word means “faggot” in Spanish.
(AP)

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The Martian Candidate

Posted by: Ion | July 7th, 2007 · 2:01 AM

Folks, you can’t script anything this good. Something called the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee (X-PPAC), endorses Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson for president in 2008.

In Bill & Hill’s defense, the reasons for X-PPAC’s endorsement are a bit unconvincing and contrived:

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Hillary’s New Bill

Posted by: Jason | June 4th, 2007 · 11:23 PM

(image: latinoleaders)

Notice the love fest between Hillary and Bill Richardson during last night’s New Hampshire debate? I sure did.

On numerous occasions, mainly during discussions of foreign policy, Senator Hillary Clinton suggested that if she were president, she “would send someone over there like Bill Richardson. Someone who has negotiated before”. She did this several times in fact.

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Richardson Gains an Advocate

Posted by: Ion | · 3:21 PM

A post-debate CNN interview with Democratic spectators netted some new found Richardson demand. Bill couldn’t have scripted Frank Cocchiarella’s response better:

However, political psychologist Elizabeth Ossoff interpreted this sentiment as having the worst possible implication for Richardson:

“The idea that he would play a role, voters think that is a positive,”
(UnionLeader)

This is roughly equivalent to saying Bill is what Gary Bauer was in 2000 for the Republicans: He has a “role.” Not good when Bill’s in it to win.

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Those Magnificent Richardson Ads

Posted by: Ion | May 10th, 2007 · 2:55 AM

Bill Richardson is running some very fun television spots in Iowa:

(via The Outer-Loop)

For those of you living outside of NewMex, this sort of humor has become somewhat characteristic of Richardson campaigns. It has the added virtue of being characteristic of the candidate himself as well. Richardson can be playful (even goofy) when campaigning in person.

That’s a crucial but often overlooked dimension to his efforts in Iowa and New Hampshire too. As local hero Doug Turner observed last month, Richardson’s gregarious attributes are likely to have a considerable impact when the Iowa caucuses enter their more personal phase:

And when it comes time to eat pancakes with the candidates in Council Bluffs Iowa, my bet is that Richardson will be able to shake hands, laugh, politic, pick up votes and of course eat more with more people than anyone else in the field.
(DW Turner)

Richardson and Edwards are evidently the only two Democratic candidates presently running television in Iowa. But contrasted with Edwards grim, sanctimonious and disingenuous spots, the ad war is strikingly in Bill’s favor.

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Musical Tastes of the Candidates

Posted by: Ion | May 9th, 2007 · 12:40 PM

The AP continues their mildly entertaining “personal interests of the candidates” series, this time with musical favorites.

Unlike with their film list, it’s a fairly saccharine range. The strangest outcome being Huckabee’s taste for Evanescence. Although perhaps that’s explained by their Arkansas origin as the AP thinks. My call is with Romney for best taste (relatively speaking) on this one.

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The Altered State

Posted by: Ion | April 29th, 2007 · 2:44 PM

(photo: Emma Campbell)

The post-9/11 attitudinal shift remains unperturbed. Thus a pronounced adjustment to the right, en route to the election, is inevitable for all of the viable Democratic candidates. Only Hillary understood this implicitly and immediately. While she sustained early damage from Obama and Edwards by remaining firm on a vigorous military and foreign policy (even her Iraq policy is a slight of hand to remain engaged there permanently), it has kept her viable in the general.

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