I’m Not The Only One

As of last Monday, Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Richardson dropped out of the race after finishing fourth in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, citing that he was running low on campaign funds and could not afford to stay in the race and campaign in other states.

I know that in my last post I said I would discuss why I will vote for Barack Obama, but I felt that because Bill Richardson got so little media attention, I’m going to make this post about him instead. To be honest I’m glad he dropped out out the race. Originally Richardson had my vote (and not because he is half Latino) because I was impressed by his diplomatic background. Right now the biggest problem facing this country is the ongoing invasion of Iraq. We can’t count on the Bush Administration to clean up their own mess, and personally I think President Bush is just waiting for his term to end so he can pass the mess on to the next President to clean up.

I feel that Bill Richardson can not only fix the problem, but could’ve been used to have prevented an invasion in the first place. He has had extensive experience negotiating with dictators. In 1995, North Korea shot down a U.S. helicopter that had accidentally strayed into North Korean airspace. Only one of the two soldiers in that chopper crash survived, and then-President Bill Clinton asked then-Congressman Richardson to negotiate for the release of the surviving soldier and the remains of the other one. Richardson was successful in negotiating with the North Korean dictator, just as he was successful in talking to Saddam Hussein for the release of two American oil workers who had wandered over the Kuwait border into Iraq in 1996.

Hmmmm…..an American with whom Saddam Hussein has prior experience negotiating? That sounds like someone we could’ve used back in 2002 when Hussein refused to let UN inspectors look for those WMDs. Perhaps this whole invasion business could’ve been avoided, with many lives spared and billions in tax dollars put to better use right here in the U.S. I also liked Richardson because he was the most vocal supporter of pulling out all U.S. troops from Iraq immediately. In fact, he states on his campaign site that the stabilization of Iraq cannot possibly begin until the last American soldier leaves Iraq. Few other Democratic candidates have called for the immediate withdrawal of troops, especially not pro-war Hillary Clinton.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, hailed Richardson as the most fiscally responsible Democratic Presidential candidate.

Though Richardson blamed a lack of funds for his departure from the race, or more specifically, a less financed campaign than those of Obama and Clinton, what really did his campaign in was his unfortunate tendency to blurt out numerous gaffes.  His humorous anxiety-driven televised gaffes include a plan to negotiate with the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the U.S.S.R. no longer exists.   Check out the media coverage of Richardson’s verbal blunders, all of which drew more media attention than any other aspect of his campaign:

Bill Richardson’s Reign of Error (ABC News)

Master of the Misspeak (Flak  Magazine)

Negotiating with the Soviet Union (YouTube)

In an election where most of the candidates (especially the Democrats) are standing around saying, “I’m not Bush, I’m not Bush” and are diligently presenting themselves as the anti-Bush candidate, exhibiting public behavior that remind most people of George W. Bush can be political suicide for a Democratic candidate.  And in a society where public figures are judged by 10-second sound bites, a handful of gaffes can dwarf an extensive and impressive record.

I would like to see Bill Richardson serve as a Vice President or perhaps even Secretary of State, where his foreign relations experience can play a role in changing our country’s ass-backwards foreign policy.  Some people have rumored that Obama and Richardson are in cahoots and that Richardson may be picked to Obama’s running mate.

I think Richardson had a lot of trouble in wooing the Latino vote, especially outside of the southwest, where he was relatively unknown.  One of the most telling features of Latinos are Spanish surnames, despite the fact that there are many Latinos with non-Hispanic surnames and many Latinos who have no ancestors from Spain.  This failure to recognize Richardson as a Latino candidate (can anyone tell me if Richardson is the first Latino to run for President?) is evident when most media figures describe the 2008 election as being unique in having a black candidate, a female candidate and a Mormon candidate, failing to mention the one Latino candidate.

The fact is, a Hispanic surname is as universally recognizable of one’s Latino heritage as dark skin is for a black person.
With a name like Richardson, it can be quite difficult to communicate to Latinos and non-Latinos alike of your ethnic identity.  Another unfair disadvantage Richardson faced was during the Univision Presidential debate last September, where he was forbidden from answering questions in Spanish, despite the fact that Univision is the largest Spanish-language television network in the U.S.  The moderators asked the candidates questions in English, and the candidates’ answers were translated into Spanish.

I think Univision’s attempt at fairness was in fact unfair to Richardson because all the other candidates get to pander to their perspective demographic groups (voting blocs).  If the debate was being held by the National Organization for Women, Hillary Clinton would’ve obviously played up the fact that she is a woman.  If the debate had been held by the NAACP, Obama would’ve obviously played up the fact that he is of African descent.  So why can’t the guy with the Anglo name at least answer questions in fluent Spanish to play up the fact that he is a Latino?

It was in the last two months, when Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards consistently emerged as the three most prominent candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination, that I decided to vote instead for Obama.  I promise in my next post I will explain my reasons for voting for Obama.

I sincerely hope that Bill Richardson is called upon by the Democratic Presidential candidate to serve in some advisory capacity for drafting a new foreign policy, especially  in U.S. relations with Latin America.  Whether the gringos in this country like it or not, Latin America is easily the part of the international community with whom the United States had always been involved with and will most likely increase its involvement as the Latino population in the U.S. continues to grow.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 12:09 am and is filed under Voting, Language, 2008 Presidential Race, Race & Ethnicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.