Gov. Bill Richardson: 2008 and North Korea

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has a lot on his plate these days. He's in the middle of a reelection campaign for governor, he's thinking about running for president in 2008 and he's been tapped by different news shows to give his thoughts on North Korea. Here's part of an article he published on July 6 in the New York Daily News:

North Korea's Fourth of July missile test was several things: an infantile demonstration of aggression by an isolated nation and a seriously destabilizing act felt throughout the Pacific Rim. But most of all it was a failure - a failure of a missile technology and a failure of diplomacy.

This test was a failure for North Korea because its outdated Taepodong 2 missile crashed prematurely into the Sea of Japan. But we also now see that the Bush administration's handsoff stance toward North Korea is not working. As the world's greatest superpower, we should be actively engaged in disarming and lessening the North Korean threat.

I traveled to North Korea last October and won from the North Koreans an agreement to return to the six-party talks involving the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Those talks were to be focused on lessening the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula - but they have stalled over unrelated financial disagreements.

(snip)

We must turn North Korea away from its nuclear brinkmanship and toward providing a stable food supply and more opportunity for its people. This means direct engagement from the highest levels in Washington employing all the tools at our disposal.

We are doing this in New Mexico. North Korea desperately needs Western energy, agriculture and medical technology and, as a result of my trip there last fall, New Mexico is providing aid. Our joint humanitarian exchanges have already sent a team on North Korean heart doctors to New Mexico to learn the latest cardiac surgery techniques.

Bill Richardson has an extensive resume stretching back to the 1970s. He served in the House, was UN ambassador under Clinton and later Secretary of Energy and was elected governor of New Mexico in 2002; he has more hands-on experience than any of the other Democratic contenders that I've covered so far.

Here's an excerpt from an article by Stuart Rothenberg of The Rothenberg Political Report who recently published the same article in Roll Call:

When I spoke with the governor recently, he would only say, “After November, I will reassess my plan.” But Richardson, 58, has long been mentioned for higher office as part of a Democratic national ticket, and I’d be flabbergasted if he didn’t take the presidential plunge for 2008.

In 1984, less than two years after he was elected to a new Congressional district created by reapportionment and redistricting, Richardson already was being touted as a possible Senate candidate against Republican Sen. Pete Domenici.

Rothenberg mentions some of Richardson's possible negatives (mostly minor) but, given the negatives of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and George W. Bush that were glossed over by the media in 2000, I'm not sure how much Richardson's negatives will be in play.

Steve Terrell of the Free New Mexican had this to say of a recent GQ article that profiled the likely 2008 Democratic presidential contenders (sorry, no link to GQ):

...back on page 100, the governor of the great state of New Mexico is profiled along with several other probable 2008 presidential contenders.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, to nobody's surprise, is named Democratic "front-runner." Below her are Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, Richardson, Sen. John Kerry and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

According to the analysis, "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."

Richardson's "natural allies," according to GQ, are "Democrats who want to win. ... He has insider chops but can still campaign as an outsider."

Bill Richardson recently attended the Yearly Kos convention of bloggers in Las Vegas but of all the candidates I've surveyed so far, he seems to have the least presence on the blogs and the internet. This may be because he's in the middle of a campaign so it will be interesting to see what he does if he wins a second term. He does have a governor's campaign website here. And I found two independent blogs who are covering him reasonably well: The Bill Richardson Blog and America for Bill Richardson.

Bill Richardson is clearly in the second tier of possible Democratic candidates in 2008 but I suspect he and Evan Bayh are the two most likely to break out of that group. Given that Bayh tends to be more conservative than some of the other contenders, the edge may go to Richardson to move into the top tier. The fact that Richardson cut taxes in New Mexico may give him a broader appeal than other candidates if he can make himself wider known.

Next up in the series is John Kerry.