It Wasn’t Easy, But Richardson Endorses Obama
“Let me tell you: we’ve had better conversations,” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said, describing his talk with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He told her, of course, that he was backing rival Sen. Barack Obama in their tense and razor-thin race for the Democratic nomination.
Endorsements only mean so much, especially at this late in the game, when both Democratic candidates have proven their strength time and again.
But this one is significant for several reasons.
Even more troublesome than the timing of the announcement for Hillary Clinton - who’s chances are eroding amid failures to get new primaries scheduled in Florida and Michigan - was what Richardson said in endorsing Obama:
- He criticized the tone of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
- He praised Obama for the speech he gave in response to the incendiary remarks delivered by Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
- He came as close as any big-name Democrat has in urging the former First Lady to potentially step aside in the interest of party unity.
“I’m not going to advise any other candidate when to get in and out of the race,” Richardson said after appearing in Portland with Obama.
“Senator Clinton has a right to stay in the race, but eventually we don’t want to go into the Democratic convention bloodied. This was another reason for my getting in and endorsing, the need to perhaps send a message that we need unity.”
In many ways, the decision by Bill Richardson, a longtime political ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, was as much a tale about his relationships with them as it was about Barack Obama and his campaign for the presidency.
Bill Richardson looked anguished when asked in an interview if his relationship with the Clintons would withstand endorsing Barack Obama.
In doing so, after all, Richardson was not only taking sides in the most bitter of political fights, but rejecting the candidacy of a close friend.
Yet he chose to do so anyway. Why?
“There’s something special about this guy,” Bill Richardson said of Obama. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it’s very good.”
Continue reading in the New York Times …
March 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Definitely courageous of Richardson given his relationship with the Clintons, but then again, it doesn’t take a seer to see the writing on the wall. People tend to endorse who they think is going to win, and that is pretty obvious to everyone but the Clintons.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
As close as Richardson is to the Clinton’s you know it was a very anguished decision! It will be a big help to Obama in getting Mexican votes. You know that the way of Politician’s mean in the long run Billary will get over it. Only us average Americans or at least myself, carry the truth to the grave.