Watch on the Potomac
Gov. Bill Richardson got mixed reviews at a Florida Democratic party dog-and-pony show late last month, clearly a tuneup for the 2008 presidential campaign. The Hartford (Conn.) Courant sent its Washington Bureau chief, David Lightman, to the Fort Lauderdale convention, and he found the state's Latinos high on Richardson. "He's a real visionary," said Debra Diaz, a Miami nurse anesthesiologist. The governor's 35-minute address "had the ring of a well-honed campaign speech, as he talked about ideas he described as the New Progressivism in domestic policy and a New Realism in foreign affairs." Richardson laid out an eight-point plan including "setting a firm date for withdrawal from Iraq" and "creating an immigration policy that secures the borders while offering a path to citizenship."
But Lightman also reported, "He didn't excite the crowd, which had just sat through a debate between Florida gubernatorial candidates and had not yet been served their dinners, even though it was already 8:30 p.m. . . . He got scattered and polite applause."
The reporter for the Gainesville Sun, a Florida newspaper, must have been among those with growling tummies. In a lengthy review of current presidential prospects, giving each a cute label, the paper lumped Richardson with Gen. Wesley Clark and Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut under the "Avis Model," wondering: "Are they running for No. 2 on the Democratic ticket?"
GQ magazine also ran an early look at the field, and Richardson had to be pleased to be ranked just below "frontrunner" Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, along with Biden, Sen. John Kerry and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. But (perhaps reacting to the governor's notoriously rumpled look and desperate need of an adult haircut) the men's fashion mag also pegged him as a likely veep: "Of all the candidates on this list, (Richardson)'s the most likely to end up somewhere on the ticket. . . . Richardson's a natural running mate for a senator who wants to embrace the reform message--especially his old friend Hillary."
The magazine went on to trot out a long list of negatives that could drag down a 2008 Richardson bid, ranging from "the insinuation by a federal judge that Richardson leaked the name of accused spy Wen Ho Lee to the media in 1999" (Richardson has denied the accusation.) to his Major League Baseball resume-padding. It concludes that the New Mexico governor might be "a little, uh, 'touchy' with the ladies. Often the smartest person in the room, he's not always the most charming."
A bit more encouraging, perhaps, is the latest Gallup/USA Today poll on 2008 Democratic contenders, which ask whom people would find "acceptable" as the party's nominee. The 2004 VP nominee, John Edwards, led with 71 percent, followed by Hillary Clinton at 69 percent and Al Gore at 68 percent. With 36 percent Richardson placed behind Kerry, Biden, Clark and party chair Howard Dean—but ahead of ex-Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Russ Feingold, Warner, 2004 hopeful Dennis Kucinich and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
Media Notes
Silver City has made another one of those "top 10" lists, and this one ought to leave local Realtors drooling. Sunset magazine picked Silver City second in all the West among hot second-home spots, behind only Steamboat Springs, Colo.: "Home base at one time to both Billy the Kid and Geronimo, Silver City now has a population of about 10,000, a university, an eclectic art community, and access to more than 3 million acres of national forest." The only other Southwestern spot to make the list was Bisbee, Ariz., right behind at third place.
The Space.com Web site reports that X Prize founder and New Mexico spaceport booster Peter H. Diamandis is the first recipient of the Heinlein Prize. Named for the late science fiction writer Robert Heinlein and funded by a trust from his royalties, the prize includes a gold medallion, a replica "Vivamus sword" (from Heinlein's novel Glory Road) and, oh, by the way—$500,000 cash. Perhaps Diamandis would like to chip in on the construction costs of the newly redubbed Spaceport America?
Read More Tumbleweeds
Top 10
Shorts
World Cup & World Music
Ripple Effect