Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Why Richardson Should Not Be Obama's VP

Ezra Klein takes a look at Bill Richardson as a possible Vice President candidate. He concludes that it is a bad idea.

And that's the problem with Richardson: It's hard to trust him as president. He's incoherent on domestic policy, fuzzy on foreign policy, and clearly doesn't know anything about the Courts. During the primary, I was told by someone who worked with him that the campaign had outsourced most of its policy to a group called Policy Works -- which means he wasn't even interested enough in policy to have an in-house shop.

That's not to say Richardson has no virtues, or nothing to recommend him. He's a good campaigner. During the primary, he staked out sharply progressive positions on global warming and Iraq. His negotiating skills are arguably unparalleled. But part of thinking through vice presidential choices is figuring out who would be a good president. And it's hard to conclude that Richardson has the heft to fill that role, or even get through the campaign without embarrassing Obama.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suspect the consultant his campaign hired was a company called Public Works, not the Iowa-based PolicyWorks. I know Public Works has worked for the Richardson administration in NM, so I would guess he utilized them in his campaign. And BTW, I believe Culver administration has been utilizing Public Works as well.

Anonymous said...

I have the same concerns about BR. I loved him on the trail, but he is a flub machine. He would be a campaign liability. He is a smart guy, no doubt, but he has too many problems to imagine him in the #1 spot. I recall the Meet the Press appearance in May 2007.