Redstate

Posted at 2:12pm on May 23, 2008 REDSTATE ROUNDTABLE #10: The Democratic Veepstakes

Who Will Sit At Obama's Right Hand?

By Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin: Let's open the floor: assuming Obama hangs on to claim the Democratic nomination, who will he pick as his running mate? Who should he pick?

Obama's problem is that for all his strengths as a candidate, he's got a bunch of conflicting vulnerabilities - he lacks national security credibility and executive experience; he has no military record; he's been weak with white working-class voters; he's a relatively inexperienced politician; some women will want a woman on the ticket to soothe the sense that Hillary got passed over; he also wants to appeal to Latino voters, but a female or Latino running mate might be too much to swallow for a lot of white male voters. Not only is that a long list, but the identity-politics pitfalls mean it's a contradictory one.

Read On for the rest of the roundtable...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Bill Richardson | Jim Webb | Redstate Roundtable | Veepstakes — Comments (42)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:59am on May 21, 2008 Richardson: Talk to Castro, Chavez, but not Ahmadinejad

By Soren Dayton

Another Democratic foreign policy leader rejects Barack Obama's foreign policy:

Well, you know throughout my career, I've talked to a lot of bad guys. You know, I have talked to Castro. I think you don't talk to Ahmadinejad. You talk to some of the moderate clerics.

So far Joe Biden, Harold Ford and others have rejected Obama too. If the Democratic foreign policy establishment rejects Obama, the American people will too.

Posted in 2008 | Ahmadinejad | Barack Obama | Bill Richardson | Iran — Comments (50) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:08pm on Mar. 4, 2008 Bill Richardson: out on a limb

The New Mexico governor and Clintonista is still a figure of fun.

By Mark Kilmer

It looks like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who refused to endorse anyone on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, might be ready to call the Dem race after this evening.

Marc Ambinder offers this:

Per Howard Fineman on MSNBC, Bill Richardson is telling advisers that should Hillary Clinton win Ohio and Texas, the Democratic race is "wide open." Should Barack Obama win, "it's over."

Clinton (Hillary) could win Texas and Ohio this evening and not dent her delegate deficit, gov, but nice beard.

It's over. Electoral math is not that tricky.

Posted in 2008 | Bill Richardson | Hillary | Obama — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:18am on Dec. 25, 2007 Bill Richardson: The problem with healthcare in the United States is that we rely too much on doctors

By Jeff Emanuel

According to the Wall Street Journal, Democrat presidential candidate Bill Richardson is, on the campaign trail, touting the benefits of "holistic and spiritual medicine" and their inclusion in his health care plan. From the WSJ blog:

Responding to a question Saturday at a living-room gathering in snowy Des Moines, the first-tier-wannabe candidate touted his state’s expertise with nontraditional methods of healing.

"In my state, New Mexico, we’ve got more holistic healing than you do. I appreciate that kind of medical care. I appreciate dietary supplements. I appreciate oriental medicine. I think we have to open up health care delivery and access. You know how the doctors are. They want to keep it to themselves," he said. Under a Richardson administration, government health programs would pay for alternative therapies, he said.

Yikes.

h/t The Carpetbagger Report, which adds (Read on):

Posted in Bill Richardson | Democrats | Health care — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:33am on Dec. 15, 2007 The Foreign Policy Platforms Of Mike Huckabee And Bill Richardson

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Dan Drezner has the scoop on each candidate's foreign policy priorities. Huckabee's makes for especially depressing reading; I don't agree with the thrust of Richardson's arguments, but at least he has an argument while Huckabee quite plainly has no feel or grasp of major foreign policy issues. His writings and his grand strategy--to the extent that one can be divined from his article--are a mushy mess.

Incidentally, I too oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty. I put out my reasons for opposing it here. It's nice to see that Huckabee agrees with my stance but I don't think he has any idea why he's supposed to agree.

Posted at 5:00pm on Nov. 27, 2007 The Iowa Race Is Close

By California Yankee

Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in Iowa that shows Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama tied in the Democratic presidential race at 29%, with John Edwards trailing at 23%.

On the Republican side it shows, Mitt Romney barely leading with 26%, followed closely by Mike Huckabee at 24%, Rudy Giuliani at 14%, Fred Thompson at 10% and Sen. John McCain at 7%. [Read on]