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Bill Richardson: Man of persuasion |
One gets the impression that if everyone in the country
could meet Bill Richardson, then come next November he’d no
longer be governor of New Mexico — he’d be the president of the
United States.
That, of
course, is impossible — statistically, financially and
logistically. Just as it is pretty much impossible to believe
the good man from out southwest will get the Democratic Party’s
nomination. For one thing, most big money’s backing the
prepicked favorites; for another, Richardson’s just too nice a
guy.
Really.
At the Biltmore
Monday for an under-the-radar, “low-dollar” fundraiser that was
closed to the media (I paid), the Cali-born, Mexico City-bred,
Boston-prepped, half-Hispanic Mayflower descendant (stir that in
your melting pot) glad-handed and regaled each and every person
in the room with a kindness of which only the genuinely kind are
capable.
Yeah, I know,
it could be argued that since the crowd consisted largely of the
governor’s grass-roots supporters he had better be kind, but
there’s no mistaking the man’s candor. He was truly grateful to
be there.
And, naturally,
his core cadre was grateful to have him stop by, however low-key
the assembly. Speaking without notes, Richardson ran through
what must now be a litany of what needs to be done. There was
“restoring the American dream” (which begins by having a
Democrat back in the White House), “the great mistake” of war
(“all the troops out of Iraq”), health care for everyone (“no
matter who you are”), protecting the economy (Richardson’s
consistently ranked one of the most fiscally responsible
governors in the nation), No Child Left Behind (“I will scrap it
and start over”) and education (science and math academies, a
$40k base salary for teachers).
But — here we
go again — it was his demeanor that most struck home and heart.
The man’s a natural diplomat, at ease and informed in any
situation, and one immediately gets why numerous parties have
sent him into some of the world’s stickiest negotiations. Taking
a page from former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (“you
don’t make peace with your friends; you make peace with your
enemies”), he wields the wand of persuasion, not appeasement.
It’s an art at
which Richardson’s particularly well versed: In ’95 he sat down
with Saddam and secured the release of two aerospace engineers;
he did likewise for other American prisoners in both North Korea
and Sudan, and, even if the feuding rebel factions in Darfur
didn’t adhere to the 60-day ceasefire Richardson brokered, it
was no fault of the governor’s.
Sure,
Richardson once served on the corporate boards of — and (until
his Oval Office bid) retained considerable holdings in — both
Valero Energy Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling. And,
yes, he was once senior managing partner at Kissinger McLarty
Associates, the “strategic advisory firm” headed by former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Clinton White
House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty. But that only means the man
can carry himself among the corridors of power. And it’s a good
bet that were he not at ease along those hallowed halls, he’d
have never had a chance to oversee such feats as the largest
return of federal lands (84,000 acres) to an American Indian
tribe (Utah’s Northern Ute) in more than 100 years, as did
Richardson back in 2000.
No, like the
good man says, “this race is not over.” And come next fall,
“[w]e’re going to elect either a woman president, an
African-American president or a Hispanic-American president.
Yes, Bill’s “the Hispanic, by the way.” He’s also one helluva
guy.
Now, if only we
lived in a world where that were enough. |
