Bush does one thing right: Bill Richardson going to North Korea
No...despite what it seems, we have not become the Bill Richardson blog. But each of us in our own way have started to take notice of the man. Edwards and Richardson seem the best of the candidates...except for the money issue.
Bill Richardson has great diplomatic experience and his skills as a negotiator have gotten him nominated for the Nobel Peace prize some four times. So this is a guy who should be used when there is a delicate diplomatic situation (and when our BEST diplomat, Nobel Prize WINNER Jimmy Carter, is unavailable).
And our usually dense President appears to have noticed that Richardson is a diplomatic resource worth using. Bill Richardson has been tapped by Bush to lead a delegation to North Korea to negotiate the return of the remains of missing US servicemen.
Best of luck Bill!
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THis is typical! No one said he was a progressive. I said he can appeal to both moderates and progressives. THere is a big difference. Some of his stands satisfy progressives, particularly his Iraq stand, but he is basically a moderate (like Dean) and appeals, I am learning, to conservatives like Orthodox Jews and libertarians.
Please read carefully before commenting. We get so many rolled eyes in relation to your comments you wouldn't even believe it. I ever said he was progressive. I said he can APPEAL to both ends.
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Is Richardson really progressive?
Bill Richardson is pro-death penalty and in 1996 voted against a bill to maintain the right of habeus corpus in death penalty appeals (this is a matter of record, although the blurb I got was from kucinich's web site) and a year earlier ('94) voted against replacing death penalty sentences with life imprisonment. Bush has done everything in his power to suspend or do away with habeus corpus, particularly in terrorism related cases like those at guantanamo. If he still holds to his earlier votes, that alone would be enough get Amnesty International the ACLU to recommed not voting for him. Richardson seems to be a hardliner on crime, he supports things like (in kucinich's blurb), mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders .etc
Richardson is of course one of a longstanding member of and champion of the DLC. He was DLC's keynote speaker at their 2003 convention, the year after John Edwards-- another member-- keynoted. They are both moderates IMO selling themselves as liberals on the campaign trail.
I saw Bill Bradley speak the other day at B&N. Bradley talked passionately about the liberal progressive cause and mentioned one candidate only as the one with the greatest potential-- Barack Obama. Bradley was effusive in his praise of Obama, but says he is stopping short of formally endorsing at this time because he wants to see more details in his policy statements. Obama is clearly the most liberal progressive candidate out there and it is curious to me that he gets so little love here on this site, as opposed to other candidates who are to the right of him.
I do like Richardson's support of legalizing medicinal marijuana though.