Bill Richardson Filing Papers for Presidential Race

Bill Richardson's numbers may not be great this early in the race but he's game. Here's the AP story from CBS:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson intends to take the initial step toward the Democratic nomination, hoping his extensive resume will fuel an insurgent campaign to become the first Hispanic president.

Richardson plans to announce on Sunday that he will soon file the papers to create a presidential exploratory committee, several officials with knowledge of his plans said Friday. The governor is scheduled to appear on ABC's "This Week."

(snip)

Richardson, 59, is a former congressman, U.N. ambassador and Energy Department secretary. He brings a wealth of experience in international affairs that has extended even into his governorship of a small but politically important swing state.

He has hosted talks on North Korea's nuclear program in New Mexico and most recently traveled to Sudan to meet with the country's president to press him for an end to the bloodshed in Darfur.

Until the current generation of Republicans give up their rigid ideology and authoritarianism, they have nothing to run on, but no doubt they will play their games between now and election day in 2008 and will spend a great deal of money smearing Democratic candidates because that's about the only game they have left. Republicans won't turn to somebody sensible like Chuck Hagel so they'll put up another illusion. The only danger will be if the American people fall asleep again when, a year from now, Republicans begin reading the polls and suddenly begin pretending to be something they're not.

On the other hand, I'm impressed with several of the Democrats, including Bill Richardson; if a Democrat wins the presidency and it isn't Richardson, I hope whoever wins finds a place for him. But think of it: John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Tom Vilsack, Christopher Dodd, Wesley Clark and Bill Richardson would all do a better job in the White House than the current occupant.