Governor Bill Richardson has by far, the most diversely impressive resume of them all, BY FAR!!

I am not necessarily advocating for Gov. Richardson for the V.P. position. There are other valuable candidates worth considering.

I have also wondered if there is some strategic problem with having a Hispanic V.P. nominee on the same ticket with the first African-American major party presidential candidate. I don't know the answer to this question. But I am sure some strategist would suggest that this could weaken the ability to working-class white voters to identify with the ticket. (His mother was born in Spain, his father was an Anglo-American banker, born in Los Angeles but working and living in Mexico City where Gov. Richardson spent most his childhood.) On the other hand he could help swing New Mexico into the Democratic column and his presence on the ticket could help insure a higher Latino voter turnout.

But just take a look at his C.V. -- Very impressive indeed!

14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives with a specialized interest in foreign affairs

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

U.S. Secretary of Energy

And of course the current Governor of New Mexico

And his life story is compelling as well:

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

Bill Richardson was born at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California to María Luisa López-Collada Márquez (born in Asturias, Spain 1914) and William Blaine Richardson Jr. (1891–1972), a banker who lived and worked in Mexico City for decades. It was his mother who largely took care of him during his youth. He has a younger sister, Vesta. Just before Richardson was born, his mother was sent to California, where her husband's sister lived, to give birth because, as Richardson explained, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States."<2> Three of his four grandparents were Mexican citizens, and he identifies himself as Hispanic.<2> Richardson, a U.S. citizen by birthright, was raised during his childhood in Mexico City. At age 13, Richardson's parents sent him to Massachusetts to attend a Boston-area preparatory school, Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played baseball as a pitcher. He entered Tufts University in 1966 where he continued to play baseball.

He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts in 1970, majoring in French and political science and was a brother and president of Delta Tau Delta. He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971. While still in high school, he met his future wife, Barbara Flavin. They married in 1972 and have no children.

After college, Richardson worked for Republican Congressman Bradford Morse from Massachusetts. He was later a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Richardson worked on congressional relations for the Henry Kissinger State Department during the Nixon Administration. In 1978, he moved to Santa Fe and ran for Congress in 1980 as a Democrat, losing narrowly to longtime 1st District congressman and future United States Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan (R). Two years later, Richardson was elected to New Mexico's newly created third district, taking in most of the northern part of the state.

He can't be vetted. All kinds of extramarital shenanigans.

In theory, he's great.

And Bill Clinton was President, remember that.

And this, I suppose is why there are teams set up to go through everything like this.

and of course some positives as well.

Sen. Biden is viewed as an extremely competent and experienced Senator, especially on matters relating to national security and foreign affairs. But the fact is, Sen. Biden represents a small Northeastern urban safe Democratic state.

Sen. Webb has a very impressive C.V. as well as representing a very important swing state and he seems to possess appeal to white working class voters, but some of his unguarded language mostly from the distant past, although some fairly recent - creates some concerns also.

Most of the other popular names mentioned have little or no foreign policy experience and relatively limited experience in national scene politics also, even domestically.

The perfect candidate would have an impressive foreign policy/national security background with a number of years in both legislative and executive roles. The perfect candidate would come from an important swing state and have particular appeal in small towns, outer suburbs and mid size cities especially among working class voters. The perfect candidate would be a popular elected official with regional appeal and is from either the South or the Southwest or the West or the Mid West or an important border state that is also an important swing state.

Then on top of all of that the perfect candidate would be an upstanding family person who has no potentially embarrassing baggage that could attract negative attention.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be even one perfect candidate.

Those with impressive resumes and years of experience usually have a bit too much baggage or come from the wrong part of the country. Those who come from the right part of the country and are upstanding family people without baggage tend to be lacking the long impressive record of experience, especially experience in foreign policy and national security.

Wes Clark seems to come awfully close. However, he has never held elected office - and that would have to be considered a minus too. In the aftermath of September 11, electing a General had a strong psychological appeal even if they never held elected office. I think the psychological dynamics are different now.

So, one way or the other, we unfortunately will have to settle for a less than perfect candidate whoever it is.

I think he was accused of it. Not proven of course, but he was accused and that could be bad.

he has many bad things in his closet. These are very good people with no ax to grind and they tell me he is not a nice man. Very unfortunate because he does have a great resume.

He thinks being gay is a choice.

by a wide margin.

You clearly didn't examine all the candidates all that closely when the primary season began.

:eyes:

a weak attack dog, and has skeletons in his closet.

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