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Late Friday afternoon, the day the Obama campaign announced their vice president candidate, Bill Richardson sent out an email to supporters to his presidential run.

It was clear at that point, Richardson was not going to be the vice president candidate, even though he touts a long resume when it comes to foreign policy. It was as if Richardson was telling supporters even though he won’t be vice president, to not forget about him.

Here is the email…

I know it’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me. But before I head off to the Democratic National Convention, I wanted to share with you some of the exciting things that have been going on.

This weekend I’m flying to Denver with Dave Contarino, Amanda Cooper and several of my senior staff. And on August 28, I’ll join with hundreds of Democratic delegates in nominating Barack Obama as our next president.

The whole world will be watching as Democrats come together in one incredible, inspirational moment for our Party and our nation. I’m sure you’ll be watching, too.

Then on Wednesday, Barack Obama has asked me deliver a special address on foreign policy and diplomacy. I hope you’ll tune in to hear it.

Over the next week, I’ll be attending a variety of meetings and events in Denver. I’ll share more details with you about those as we firm up my schedule.

In these weeks leading up to the Convention, I’ve been campaigning around over the country on behalf of Barack Obama. From Illinois to California, Florida to Puerto Rico, we’ve been raising money and rallying supporters.

In particular, we have been all over New Mexico, building a strong organization so Obama can win the state in November. Just the other morning, I visited three cities before lunch–then came back to Santa Fe for a midday rally.

Last weekend, I joined Senator Hillary Clinton to host an Obama rally in Espanola. Now, Espanola is a town of only about 10,000–and over 1,000 people came out to see us!

Senator Clinton spoke passionately about the need for every Democrat to unite behind Obama, and urged those who worked so hard on her campaign to work just as hard to make him our next president.

Afterward, I held two very successful fundraisers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque to help Senator Clinton retire her campaign debt. It was a great day for the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is truly coming together. And the Convention will complete the healing for our Party–and set the stage for taking back the White House in November.

Now I’ve got just a few things to take care of before I leave. But I promise I’ll keep you posted on everything going on in Denver.

I’ll write again once we’ve checked into the hotel.

All the best,

Bill Richardson

Governor of New Mexico

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Barack Obama is supposed to announce his VP candidate this evening or tomorrow morning by text message to supporters. There will be an event in Springfield, Illinois tomorrow afternoon with Obama and the Vice President candidate.

I am predicting that the choice will be Joe Biden. Biden is known to talk a lot and, except for a comment midweek that he’s not the guy, he has been pretty quiet the past couple weeks. Biden is coming off a trip to Georgia where he talked to leaders in the region about the conflict with Russia. Biden best quality in my opinion is that he isn’t afraid to throw elbows and go on the attack.

Bayh and Kaine’s names have been put out there before Obama made campaign stops in their respective states and the buzz wasn’t always positive. I think that was basically a test run and the campaign has decided against those two. Another reason that going against Kaine is that Obama just spent two days campaigning in Virginia, a key battleground state, so it wouldn’t make sense to announce your naming the Governor of Virginia VP at an event in another state.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary Clinton gets the nod. This diary at Open Left makes the case that Obama will name Hillary Clinton that makes a lot of sense.

If, in June, Clinton told you she should be your VP and you were seriously considering it, what would you do? You would probably tell her that the only way it could happen is if you wholeheartedly endorse me, make it clear you have gotten over the joint ticket idea, have those under your influence (such as the “Vote Both” folks) drop all of their efforts on HRC’s behalf. You’d say, I can’t look weak by picking you, like I was forced by circumstance. It must look like a choice I made that I didn’t have to make but I did because I’m such a big person and I care about the country and I care about victory.

There are three candidates that I would most like to see be named vice president. I would love for Obama to name Kathleen Sebelius, who was campaigning in Iowa yesterday, is still a choice, but there hasn’t been much buzz about her lately. And Tom Harkin is pushing for Chris Dodd, which I think would be a great choice. Finally, I have been a little surprised that Bill Richardson hasn’t been mentioned as much. I think he would bring a lot to the table.

Then it could be a complete dark horse candidate like Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Mark Warner, or Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (one of the battleground states Obama is visiting after the announcement is Montana).

Now it’s just time to sit back with my cell phone in hand and wait for the announcement.

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Barack Obama is excepted to announce his choice for vice president next week (which he will be announcing via text message).

From MyDD…

John Kerry announced his choice of John Edwards for VP on July 6, 2004, exactly 20 days prior to the first day of the 04 Democratic convention. If Barack Obama follows the same schedule, he will announce his choice on Tuesday, August 5. Certainly one suspects the announcement will come prior to the commencement of the Olympics on Friday, which means the likelihood is that the announcement will come some time in the next 5 days.

In the rest of the post they run down the complete short list (would that be the long short list?). The names that I am hearing pop up the most are Sen. Evan Bayh, Sen. Joe Biden, Gov. Tim Kaine, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Out of those 4, Biden and Sebellius would be by far my top choices. However, I still prefer Bill Richardson and Wesley Clark.

Over the next couple days, I will be posting more about the possible candidates.

In the meantime, DesMoinesDem chimes in with her thoughts over at Bleeding Heartland.

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From Marc Ambinder…

In a briefing with reporters here in Washington, Obama manager David Plouffe offered the campaign’s first public comments on what criteria Obama would use to choose his vice presidential ticket-mate.

Responding to a reporter’s question, Plouffe said that Obama would choose someone “qualified to be president and someone who’ll be a partner in governing.”

“We certainly don’t want to pick someone who will hurt,” he said.

He then referred to President Bush’s choice of Dick Cheney as any example of a pick that didn’t help Bush politically but didn’t hurt him either.

And he noted that the pick of Al Gore didn’t help Bill Clinton win Tennessee in 1992; without Gore, Clinton would have won anyway.

Richardson and Webb have the best geographic arguments to be VP, so you’d think this might help the chances of Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius.

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Ezra Klein takes a look at Bill Richardson as a possible Vice President candidate. He concludes that it is a bad idea.

And that’s the problem with Richardson: It’s hard to trust him as president. He’s incoherent on domestic policy, fuzzy on foreign policy, and clearly doesn’t know anything about the Courts. During the primary, I was told by someone who worked with him that the campaign had outsourced most of its policy to a group called Policy Works — which means he wasn’t even interested enough in policy to have an in-house shop.

That’s not to say Richardson has no virtues, or nothing to recommend him. He’s a good campaigner. During the primary, he staked out sharply progressive positions on global warming and Iraq. His negotiating skills are arguably unparalleled. But part of thinking through vice presidential choices is figuring out who would be a good president. And it’s hard to conclude that Richardson has the heft to fill that role, or even get through the campaign without embarrassing Obama.

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Barack Obama has the ability to create a new map of blue states and red states. He puts a lot more states in play for Democrats to win this election than in years past.

Names of possible vice presidents, such as Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell are being mentioned by people who are only looking at the old map where Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida are the battleground states Democrats must win.

This story from last month about Obama targeting the Hispanic vote in the Mountain West tells the reason why Bill Richardson should be Barack Obama’s vice president.

Polls released last week by Rasmussen Reports found Obama beating McCain in Colorado, 48 percent to 42 percent, and in New Mexico, 50 percent to 41 percent. McCain held the edge in Nevada, 46 percent to 40 percent.

Bush lost New Mexico by 366 votes in 2000, and won it four years later by only 6,000 votes.

Nevada has proved similarly competitive, with Bush winning the state both times by less than four percentage points.

In Colorado, Bush’s margin of nine percentage points in 2000 dipped to five points in 2004. Democrats have since won a Senate seat, the governor’s office, two congressional districts and control of the state legislature.

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The most important thing that Obama needs to consider when looking for a VP is foreign policy experience. Obama was attacked during the primary for not having enough experience and he will be attacked for this in the general election even more. However, if Obama picks a VP that has a ton of foreign policy experience, but voted for the war in Iraq then it would totally undercut Obama’s message that judgement matters more than experience.

It would be helpful for the VP to put more states in play. A quality VP choice should give Obama a chance to win a few states in the Mountain West or Southwest or the mid-Atlantic regions.

It would be a plus for the VP to be viewed as a Washington outsider, as it would strengthen Obama’s message of changing Washington.

With those criteria in mind, I think there are 4 names that stick out…

• Joe Biden
• Wesley Clark
• Bill Richardson
• Jim Webb

What do you think?

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Here is video of Bill Richardson endorsing Barack Obama today at an event in Portland.

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This morning Bill Richardson sent an email out to supporters where he endorsed Barack Obama for President. It seems that Obama’s speech on race earlier this week helped win Richardson over.

Earlier this week, Senator Barack Obama gave an historic speech. that addressed the issue of race with the eloquence, sincerity, and optimism we have come to expect of him. He inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility. He asked us to rise above our racially divided past, and to seize the opportunity to carry forward the work of many patriots of all races, who struggled and died to bring us together.

As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants–specifically Hispanics– by too many in this country. Hate crimes against Hispanics are rising as a direct result and now, in tough economic times, people look for scapegoats and I fear that people will continue to exploit our racial differences–and place blame on others not like them . We all know the real culprit — the disastrous economic policies of the Bush Administration!

Senator Obama has started a discussion in this country long overdue and rejects the politics of pitting race against race. He understands clearly that only by bringing people together, only by bridging our differences can we all succeed together as Americans.

His words are those of a courageous, thoughtful and inspiring leader, who understands that a house divided against itself cannot stand. And, after nearly eight years of George W. Bush, we desperately need such a leader.

To reverse the disastrous policies of the last seven years, rebuild our economy, address the housing and mortgage crisis, bring our troops home from Iraq and restore America’s international standing, we need a President who can bring us together as a nation so we can confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad.

Richardson had been rumored as a possible VP candidate for both Clinton and Obama. Now that he has endorsed Obama, I think Richardson would be a great choice as a VP candidate for Obama. He would bring a great deal of foreign policy experience, was strongly against the war in Iraq, and would boost Obama’s chances to win states like New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Montana.

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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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