Excerpt:

Yesterday Bill Richardson announced he was ending his presidential run and dropping out of the race. Richardson was hoping to do well Nevada next week, but was polls weren’t favorable. Richardson had nothing to gain to by getting blown out in Nevada. Plus, the New Mexico legislative session is starting up soon and he can get back to his duties as Governor.

Richardson was one of my final 3 choices. Out of all of the candidates, I agreed most with his plan for Iraq. Richardson understands that US troops in Iraq are targets, stuck in the middle of a civil war, and unfortunately are adding fuel to the fire over there. He also was very strong on education issues. He had the strongest position against NCLB, saying the law is unworkable and needed to be tossed out. He pushed for a minimum wage for teachers of $40,000.

In the end, Richardson’s campaign was too focused on the issues and lacked an overriding theme. Richardson should have used his background as a diplomat and made diplomacy the them of this campaign. He could have created a vision of bringing people on all sides together to successfully end the war in Iraq, solve immigration, improve education. Instead he focused on his plans to solve these issues.

Richardson’s campaign died because had too many 5 point plans. He seemed too scripted. Richardson’s typical answer to questions about an issue was, “That issue is very important. I have a plan. First, I would…Second….Third….Fourth…Finally.” This didn’t come across well at all in the debates.

On a lighter side, Richardson displayed a great sense of humor on the campaign trail. At a stop in Marshalltown over the summer at the Iowa Veterans Home, State Rep. Mark Smith introduced Gov. Richardson as the Governor of New Jersey. Richardson came up to the podium and thanked Rep. Smith for all of his great work in the state of Idaho.

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