Richardson Stumbles

Wonder how critiques like these will look when the primaries begin early next year. How many faux pas can a candidate make and still be considered viable? Here's Markos himself writing on Richardson's remarks yesterday.

More on Richardson

by kos

Tue Sep 04, 2007 at 10:02:41 AM PDT

In short, an RNN reporter asked Richardson if he would vote for the Iraq Supplemental that was about to come to a vote and had been dominating the news for days (if not weeks). His answer:

I'm just not familiar with the supplemental. Which one is that?

It was particularly unfortunate given that his overall answer to the question focused on a complete pullout from Iraq. Yet with that quote above he betrayed a shocking ignorance of the war debate and how it was playing out in DC, and the sort of weak political instincts that are mocked in this video. It's this ignorance of the current political climate that could explain why he's still using obsolete 90's-era, DLC-style, Democratic Party-bashing language when just about everyone else outside of the Bush Dogs has moved on. Perhaps that political tone deafness explains why his campaign's top aide has no problem going on Fox News to yuk it up with Ann Coulter.

Richardson is clearly a man of great accomplishment, the "CV candidate" of this election. But it's amazing how skills that have served him well at the congressional and state level, as well as on diplomatic missions, have served him so poorly on a national presidential stage.

Update: The campaign responds to Richardson's dreadful remarks about the Iowa caucuses (they're Constitutionally and Scripturally mandated), claiming it was a "bad joke".

Democratic Candidates at Carson City Event Today Impressed Me

Turned on C-span this evening and thought I'd watch a little bit of the Meet the Democratic Candidates event broadcast originally earlier in the day. Was captured and stayed with it for the more than two hours. Dodd, Edwards, Clinton, Richardson, Byden, Kucinich, Vilsak, and Mr. Gravel, an elderly fellow from Alaska who had been in the Senate some years ago and gave a stemwinding, old fashioned labor speech were there -- from the ASCME convention at Carson City, Nevada. Each gave good accounts of themselves in two minute speeches, a short q and a with Stephanopolous, and a final 2 minute windup.

Edwards was strong and confident., Byden quite appealing, and Kucinich surprisingly moving and convincing, especially with his plea for universal health coverage now! Not baby steps, as he called it, as offered by the governors. And no ties to health insurance corporations. He ended by sticking out his arms horizontally and saying, "No strings, no strings, no strings." Richardson was disappointing. He seemed slightly nervous. But where was Obama, I wondered. Not there. Nevertheless, they were an impressive bunch. Nobody could call them "The Seven Dwarfs," the title given to the Democratic candidates running in 1988 and from whom came Michael Dukakis!