Bill Richardson

A message on my answering machine invited me to come to a house party for Bill Richardson, at a home less than a mile from my home. I was eager to go, as the Nashua Peace Group had liked him very much. He had, I believe, a very aggressive schedule for bringing the troops home.

The party was at the beautiful home of two physicians, who had been in a residency program many years ago with Bill Richardson's sister. They were standing on the driveway welcoming everyone in, and both the living room and the dining area became full, with 100+ people. He was on time, and stood in the doorway between the two rooms to address everyone.

He talked about the various issues - the war, health insurance, global warming, education. As he spoke I could not help feeling that all democratic candidates were beginning to sound rather similar. It is almost as though all the campaigns have figured out what the voters care about, and the messages have been honed to address those issues, to say what voters want to hear. Earlier they did not all sound that similar, but now the messages on the various issues seem to have coalesced around similar stances. They all want to stop the war, with various timelines on how they will do it. They all want univeral healthcare, with minor differences on how it will be done. They all talk about the environment. I suppose this is democracy, in that the voters' concerns are getting reflected in the campaigns. And it makes me as a voter look at their track record, at them as a person, instead of just listening to what they say on issues that have become important in the presidential campaign.

One thing was interesting in what Bill Richardson said - he said under his leadership as governer New Mexico chose to follow the Kyoto protocol. But overall, I was not fired up, and my support for Edwards did not come close to wavering.

Richardson had come across as a very liberal democrat from what I had heard, but I have read a part of his book "Between Worlds' and there he comes across as a centrist democrat, and calls himself that as well. Maybe as I finish the book I will see him become more liberal.