Now New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson enters the Presidential race for 2008. So far the Democrats are trying to go for the first African-American President (Obama — and literally, to boot!), the first Hispanic President (Richardson), the first female President (Clinton), and the first Martian President (Kucinich).
Would The Last Democrat Not Running For President Please Turn Off The Lights?
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Richardson would most likely be a great candidate against anybody except McCain, who would likely come out on the winning end of a divided vote between two Southwestern candidates. If the GOP nominee was anybody except McCain, however, my money would be on Richardson as the victor. Unfortunately, I can’t see an opening for him with the Clinton-Obama-Edwards juggernaut.
Richardson could be very formidable against a Northeastern republican; such a match-up could really change the political landscape. Unfortunately, I don’t think the GOP will go with a Northeasterner (sorry Rudy, George and Mitt!)- and I don’t think the Democrats would go with Richardson.
Richardson’s achilles heel would probably be his lack of a firm stance on immigration. If he’d positioned himself (and he still *could*, though he’d have to backtrack on a lot of previous statements) as an immigration reformer with a real plan, he could become a bridge between white America and Hispanic America. Unfortunately, he’ll probably go with the same boring platform that dark-horse governors usually go with- and fail to gain any attention or serious traction. Oh well- it could have been an interesting campaign.
Richardson’s personal ethnicity would put the immigration issue front-and-center in the 2008 campaign….even more so that it would otherwise be. As I understand it, Richardson’s position on immigration is a close variation of the McCain-Kennedy bill supported in the Senate, a fairy tale plan that is at least as unserious as the House’s “enforcement only” plan if not more so.
The only immigration plan that I think would win majority support and would at least have a chance at accomplishing meaningful reform is one that provides a path to citizenship to the 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in America, an uncompromising border fence (or two if necessary) along the Mexican border to avert the vast majority of illegal crossings, total resistance to a diabolical and apartheid-esque “guest worker program” that would dehumanize impoverished laborers into a commodity in a way not seen since the slave trade, and increases in the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. that carefully measures the impact on the job market in all sectors. This is a “comprehensive” plan that the majority of Americans could get behind…..but is of course a plan that not a single political leader has advocated.