http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/index.php
And don't forget www.HowardDeanin2012.com For now it's redirected to http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/index.php
Again 11 AM PT on CNN!
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNrYvAi-WwpRBCdw1Ry9fxZ2as4QD8TUS06O0
Richardson Stays in Democratic Contest By MICHAEL J. CRUMB – 5 days ago DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Despite his fourth-place finish in Iowa, Democrat Bill Richardson said he'll keep campaigning as the only candidate who will get the troops out of Iraq next year. "I just believe there is a lot of support for my position on the war, and I'm going to make this campaign a referendum on ending the war," the New Mexico governor said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly before boarding a plane to New Hampshire. Richardson, who got just 2 percent of the vote in Iowa, said he had called Barack Obama to congratulate the Illinois senator for his victory in the first test of the 2008 presidential election. Richardson ran ads in the final days of the Iowa campaign criticizing the top three finishers — Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton — for refusing to commit to a quicker withdrawal of troops. He was the only Democratic candidate to criticize rivals by name in his ads. Obama, Clinton and Edwards said in a debate three months ago that while they plan to end the war in Iraq, they cannot guarantee pulling out all U.S. combat troops by the end of the next presidential term in 2013. They say some troops would have to stay to protect the American Embassy or for other duties. Richardson has said that's not really ending the war. Now that Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Joe Biden of Delaware have dropped out of the Democratic contest, Richardson suggested he has a better chance of getting his message through. "We made the final four and we're on to New Hampshire," Richardson said to the loud cheers of about 300 supporters gathered in a downtown hotel ballroom. Richardson said he'd been held back by a lack of funds, but said his political views would prevail with voters beyond New Hampshire. "When you're outspent 20-1 it shows, but this race is not over, wait until we get to New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado," he said. In the interview, Richardson blamed his loss on a large turnout that benefited Obama. He said voters clearly were attracted to Obama's message of bringing change to the White House. Richardson rose to double-digits in the polls last summer and once seemed set to break into the top tier of candidates. But his climb in the polls stalled in the fall as Obama's campaign began to surge. A poll of those entering the caucuses showed that Richardson had 7 percent support. But any candidate who doesn't get at least 15 percent support in a given precinct is not viable under Iowa Democratic Party rules and their supporters are free to back other candidates. Supporter Mike Grooms, 53, of Des Moines, said Richardson supporters at his caucus site all shifted to Obama "because it would damage (Hillary) Clinton," once it became clear Richardson wasn't viable. A Richardson adviser confirmed that the campaign encouraged local organizers to move to Obama when Richardson didn't meet the threshold. Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.
___________________________________________
Dear Richardson supporters:
The national call tonight was very abbreviated. Cara Compton National
Remote Call Coordinator, Mike Kruger, DC Coordinator, Marsha Kelly,
Minnisota Coordinator and myself were on the call. Jeff Gulko asked us to
do the call as he was not available.
I am sending this out to insure you receive the following message. The
campaign has denied the AP report of this afternoon and we have heard
that it is being retracted.
The Governor is back in New Mexico doing what he was elected to do;
convene the new session of the legislature.
Please keep checking your e-mail and be prepared for another national
phone call within the next day or two.
I have received two calls that the national call did not activate. If
that is the case, then it is totally my fault as I must have keyed the
wrong numbers to open the phone call up. My apologies.
All the best,
Thom O Shaughnessy
Volunteer State Coordinator
California For Richardson
_________________________________________________________________
Anyone have the news?
BOSTON (CBS) ― Record voter turn out for the New Hampshire primary is having an unexpected and bad consequence: some polling places are running out of ballots.
New Hampshire Secretary of State William M. Gardner told CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston some polling places are running low on ballots, however he could not say which sites exactly.
The Secretary of State's office was working on figuring out what locations were running low and got to work creating more ballots.
According to a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office, extra ballots are being driven to polling places. If locations run low on ballots before supplies are replenished, town and city clerks are allowed to make a copy of the ballots for voters to use.
Some polling places across the state don't close until 8 p.m. local time Tuesday.
The combination of an exciting presidential race and unseasonably mild weather had officials expecting a record voter turn out of half a million people for the primary.
God Bless President Bill Richardson!
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Funny.
"These days, Richardson's been known to put everyone from world leaders to high school kids in headlocks." LOL.
_____________________________________
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
The Associated Press
BILL RICHARDSON
PARTY: Democrat.
BIRTH DATE: Nov. 14, 1947.
RESIDENCE: Santa Fe, N.M.
EXPERIENCE: Governor of New Mexico, 2003-present; U.S. secretary of energy, 1998-2001; U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, 1997-98; U.S. House of Representatives, 1982-97.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's and master's degrees, Tufts University.
MILITARY: None.
PERSONAL: Wife, Barbara.
CANDIDATE WEB SITE: www.richardsonforpresident.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is the first in an ongoing series profiling the presidential candidates.
You would have to look hard these days for signs of "the unmade bed," as Bill Richardson has been described time and again through the years.
The disheveled man who once removed his navy blazer and hung it carelessly over the back of a chair while interviewing a job candidate. The interview done, Richardson put on his coat and stalked out - oblivious to the dusty footprints he'd tracked on his sleeve while pacing.
Now he's hospital-cornered perfection. Carefully coifed hair. Thirty-pound-trimmer frame.
Richardson's political resume is impeccable: Fourteen years in Congress. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Secretary of energy. Now in his fifth year as governor of New Mexico. A hard-earned reputation as an international negotiator.
Behind the polished surface lies something more rumpled.
"Richardson is, frankly, too real," a Washington Post political blogger once wrote.
Or could it be that authenticity has been a key to Richardson's success from the very beginning?
Two worlds
Young Billy wasn't quite sure whom to root for. It was 1954, and his father had brought him to Mexico City's Arena Coliseo to watch the North American bantamweight title fight between American Nathan Brooks and Mexican Raul Macias.
Billy, born William Blaine Richardson seven years earlier in Pasadena, Calif., had lived in Mexico City all his life. His father, Bill, was American, a banker posted south of the border. His mother, Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada, had worked as a secretary at the bank. She was Mexican.
Young Billy was still figuring out who he was.
He spoke English but dreamed in Spanish. When Billy took up baseball at age 10, he understood he was just a "gringo" to some of the Mexican players. His family was wealthy by Mexico standards, complete with a chauffeur and cook, but lived in a poorer neighborhood.
He was caught between worlds and had to learn early on how to maneuver.
Expectations of being generous, and successful, were hammered into the Richardson children daily by their father. "Failure is not an option" was ingrained - to fight to the end, like the memorable 12-round boxing match that day at Arena Coliseo, where Richardson cheered for the Mexican hero who prevailed.
In the fall of 1960, Richardson - not yet 13 - found himself struggling to fit in once again. His father sent him to Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., and the gringo became the dark-skinned outsider at an upper crust prep academy.
What better way to find acceptance in America than to excel at America's pastime?
A pitcher with a "real good fastball and an effective curve," as described in his autobiography "Between Worlds," Richardson fantasized about playing professional ball.
His competitiveness and jocular sense of humor took shape at Middlesex. On the ballfield, when his friend Jack Perron would reach out to take the bat from him, Richardson would teasingly pull it back.
"Like (Lucy) would do to Charlie Brown with the football," Perron says.
These days, Richardson's been known to put everyone from world leaders to high school kids in headlocks.
Political turn
Ed Romero was the Democratic Party chairman in New Mexico's largest county when Bill Richardson came calling in 1977, explaining that he intended to move there and run for office.
"I told him he was nuts," says Romero, "though I used an adjective in front of the word 'nuts.' "
Richardson got his first taste of politics as president of his dad's old fraternity at Tufts University. His dreams of playing pro ball had faded, and his binational background spurred an interest in international affairs.
Then, in 1971, Richardson heard a passionate speech by Hubert Humphrey about combatting social ills through public service, and politics became a new dream to chase.
After working a few years in Washington, D.C., Richardson and his wife, high school sweetheart Barbara, headed West.
He got hired as executive director of the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County and wormed his way into the political establishment.
"I thought he was coming in as a carpetbagger," Romero says, conceding now that his assessment of "nuts" was wrong.
"Bill Richardson is not short of guts, you know," says former New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca.
He saw the audacity at work when Richardson, a mere two years after moving to New Mexico, lost his first race for Congress - by just 1 percent - to political veteran Manuel Lujan. Two years after that, Richardson was elected in a new district.
Former congressional chief of staff Melanie Kenderdine can still see Richardson literally grabbing other lawmakers by the lapels to make a point, and says he frequently sidestepped seniority to get things done. His constituents rewarded him with seven re-elections.
The diplomat
"Give me my cigar" is hardly the comment one expects to hear from a U.N. ambassador heading into a meeting with the Japanese foreign minister. But to David Goldwyn, it was quintessential Bill Richardson. Richardson, upon learning that the minister was a smoker, stuck the cigar in his suit pocket and then later asked him: "Mind if I smoke?"
"He's all about: What's going to help me win?" explains Goldwyn, former national security deputy at the United Nations.
Even before taking the U.N. assignment in 1997, Richardson was earning a reputation as an international negotiator. He mediated with North Korea over the downing of two U.S. Army helicopter pilots. Negotiated with Saddam Hussein for the release of two U.S. oil workers.
His success, says Goldwyn, stems from the many different facets of his personality - whether it's the athlete (he bonded with Fidel Castro over baseball) or the regular guy (the cigar).
"His personality gets him in the door," Goldwyn says, then "the other part of his personality comes in: his relentlessness."
Relentlessness, in part, drove Richardson to again seek office in 2002. New Mexicans elected him governor with 53 percent of the vote; he was re-elected last year with 68 percent. "GovZilla," the Albuquerque Journal has since christened him.
Longtime friend Bob Gallagher describes it this way: If Richardson wants something done, "expect him to have a shotgun at the end of the hallway. Or a ramrod." And if it doesn't get done, prepare yourself for the Richardson Dog House.
The candidate
"The American people . . . don't want blow-dried candidates with perfection," Richardson said during the first Democratic presidential debate.
No chance of that with Richardson, as even he can admit. But his presidential aspirations have brought questions of whether his style diminishes his substance. "Is he presidential enough?" pundits have asked.
There have been problems, no question.
The offbeat, and sometimes off-color, sense of humor: telling a writer at The New Republic "they're all named Kim" while relating a story about his most recent dealings with a North Korean official.
The tendency to speak off the cuff: At one point Richardson cited the late Byron White as his model Supreme Court justice. Richardson, who supports abortion rights, then had to backpedal and explain that he hadn't recalled that White was a dissenter in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
Informal. Unpolished. Competitive. Impatient. Bullying. All true, to one degree or another. The unmade bed is smoother around the edges, no doubt, but still rough and tumble when the covers are stripped off.
"I'm not changing," he said in a recent interview. "Do I have faults? Yeah. Do I sometimes act a little quirky? Yeah."
As for whether all of that may be entirely "too real?"
Richardson flashed a dimpled smile. "We'll see."
__________________________________________________________________
Major Announcement from Tancredo Campaign Tomorrow
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Alan Moore
December 19, 2007
Alan.Moore@TeamTancredo.org
F. 703-255-9875
O.703.255.9898
C.303-332-8279
***Media Advisory***
Tancredo Presser in Iowa
(Washington, D.C.) - Presidential candidate Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will hold a presser to make a major announcement regarding the campaign.
WHO: Presidential candidate Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
WHAT: Major Announcement
WHEN: Thursday, December 20th, 2:00 PM CST
WHERE: Downtown Marriott
2nd Floor Salon F
700 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309
Location contact: Alan Moore 303-332-8279
####
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Democratic and Republican sources say that Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut and fierce supporter of the war in Iraq, will formally endorse Sen. John McCain tomorrow in New Hampshire.
A McCain spokesperson declined to comment.
A source familiar with the endorsement said that the two will appear of NBC's Today Show tomorrow morning and at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire.
The endorsement could help McCain with independents in the state. Combine that with news that Rudy Giuliani is scaling back his advertising buy there, that the Boston Globe endorsed McCain, and that McCain's rivals are spending most of their time in Iowa.
The endorsement is further evidence of Lieberman's slow drift to the right in American politics and is bound to generate intense anger among Democrats who support him. But Lieberman and McCain have often walked in lockstep together on the prosecution of the war, have traveled to Iraq together, and have worked together on domestic issues like climate change.
The move will heighten speculation that McCain might ask Lieberman to join his ticket.
________________________________________________
At least it doesn't shock me as much as Kucinich saying would consider Ron Paul as a running mate!!
The National Rifle Association (NRA) will "likely" not endorse anyone in the GOP field before the primaries, but executive director Chris Cox said it's not "definite."
Cox told The Hill that despite hints and rumors that the influential conservative group might get involved in the primaries, especially if former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared to be winning, the NRA is "monitoring" the race for now.
"We're in an enviable position," Cox said, adding that both Republican and Democratic candidates have been reaching out to the association. "We have more than one friend in this race."
Cox, by process of elimination, made it clear that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who in the past has won "A" ratings from the group, is the Democrat the NRA has been in contact with.
When asked about Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), a longtime friend of the group, Cox said the former senator is someone they consider a loyal champion for their cause. Cox added the caveat, however, that when it comes to endorsements, "Viability is certainly a concern."
Cox described surging candidate and former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee as "a true friend to the association and the cause."
When asked if the NRA would consider actively campaigning against Giuliani should he win the nomination or appear to be close to winning, Cox refused to rule it out.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/2008-and-counting-2007-12-13.html
"We've done that in the past," he said. "We do not hesitate to point out records of individuals who have been less than stellar when it comes to the Second Amendment.
I am trying to find a representative from the campaign, who could at some point in the future, answer some questions for members at a website. The members *will* be *very* civil and just ask some questions on policy, etc. We are looking for a scheduled evening at around 7PM PT. It will only take 30 minutes or so. If you know of anyone please PM me. Thank you!
Look at the 2:38 mark. Disgusting!! BTW, if I were a supporter of Kucinich I would drop from his campaign.
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