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 Editorials | Opinions | September 2007 
Can Richardson Pick Up Momentum?
 Victor Landa - San Antonio Express-News
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| | Bill Richardson favors arresting employers who hire undocumented workers, but he opposes the deportation of the 12 million undocumented immigrants who already live and work here. |
So let's talk about Bill Richardson's chances in '08. His is the name that comes after "and" when the names of the Democratic presidential front-runners are rattled off: Hillary, Obama, Edwards and Richardson.
Ever the politician, Richardson recently framed his last-among-the-front-runners position by saying he's happy to be the underdog and that he doesn't "want to peak too soon."
So forget fundraising and polls; the New Mexico governor's strategy is all about timing. You don't want to appear too anxious to be president. The good thing for Richardson is that he's got time.
He's got time for voters to read his résumé, arguably the best among the contenders. He's been energy secretary, U.N. ambassador, congressman and governor of a Southern border state. All this at a time when our foreign policy is a shambles and intricately woven into our energy policies and when the most contentious issue on Capitol Hill is immigration. He's got substance where Hillary's got politics, experience where Edwards and Obama have ideas.
Maybe his problem is that we've got too much time to read his résumé. Hillary comes across as a much stronger force, political, financial and otherwise. Obama gushes charisma where Richardson seems to lumber along with a mixture of aw-shucks charm and a professorial demeanor.
He's like the guy that Hillary would go to for advice, the one who would fit well in her Cabinet. He's the guy who could have been Barack Obama's public policy prof in college, more of a mentor than a challenger. And while these things may logically make him the better person for the job, political logic (like a carnival house of mirrors) puts him exactly where he is, poised.
Have I mentioned that he's Hispanic?
The curious thing is that almost every time his ethnicity is mentioned in the mainstream media, he's pegged as being Hispanic. He's Mexican on his mother's side. Political reporting is, in many ways, like retail marketing — everything has to be packaged right.
So where Hillary is the female candidate and Obama is the black candidate, Richardson is Hispanic. (There is no variable for Edwards in this formula. In this sense, Edwards is just Edwards.)
It's a nuance that has no relevance in the community at large but is noticed by many in the Latino community. My personal theory is that it's easier to say "Hispanic" in a standard broadcast accent. The word "Latino" has too many vowel sounds that challenge the standard Midwestern tongue.
Some observers believe he's unelectable because of his heritage. And yet in poll after poll, he shows up prominently in fourth place. He consistently runs 11 or 12 points to Hillary's 30 or 32. He usually trails Obama and Edwards by about 10 points. And while the three Democratic front-runners may not feel him nipping at their heels, they still include him in their calculations. They've got to. More than four months from the beginning of the primary season, he's viable.
Many pundits believe that the immigration issue doesn't help him because he's too close to the sour side of the argument. It's the baggage of being Latino in the United States in 2007. Regardless of your stance on immigration, regardless of whether you want to be involved in the discussion and the politics of it all, even if you think of yourself as American first, if you're of Latino heritage, the immigration issue sticks to you like innuendo.
In states where the immigration issue is overheated, it's a problem for Richardson. And in others, where there is a large Latino voting population, it's an opportunity.
His platform is moderate on this point. He's for stricter border controls. He favors arresting employers who hire undocumented workers, but he opposes the deportation of the 12 million undocumented immigrants who already live and work here. And he believes that citizenship should not be automatically granted to those who came here sans a green card. It's a sensible proposition given the irrational tone of the immigration debate.
But as we near the point where people start to place their bets on this horse race, a lingering question rises: Does he have the political legs to move beyond the "and"?
vlanda@sbcglobal.net |
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