January 9, 2008

"He portrayed his campaign as a job application for president" with "ads that showed a bored interviewer unimpressed with his dazzling resume."

Well, that didn't work. Richardson is out.

30 comments:

Revenant said...

I wonder why he stayed in as long as he did. Maybe it would have felt too silly to drop out before anyone even voted.

Trooper York said...

Seacrest Out!

Well not officially but everybody kind of knows anyway

Peter Hoh said...

The tribe has spoken.

Now Richardon gets to relax back at the luxury hotel and make an occasional appearance to discuss the fate of the remaining contestants.

Peter V. Bella said...

It was the bad haircut, bad dye job, and great resume. He was the only actual tested qualified Democrat to run. He had verifiable and documented experience, he actually affected public policy, he was really vetted, and he could have walked into the office on day one... unlike that other candidate who claims the same, but there is no proof; what is her name again, the one who cried, married to some guy from Hope...

Yeah, he was too liberal, but his qualifications make her look like the dishonest upstart that she is.

rhhardin said...

He stayed in to establish his name as good VP material.

Ann Althouse said...

The aesthetic angle is troubling. But in the future, everyone needs to know that they need to pay some attention to how they look or we shallow people are going to shun them. It's a shame we didn't get to the point where he got fair consideration, but this is how we are.

Meade said...

And before Iowa, over at Amba's place, without a shred of lookism in my full heart, I boldly predicted Richardson would be the nominee following a brokered convention. Does that qualify me to be a pollster/pundit guy? I most certainly think it does.

Simon said...

I think rhhardin's probably right. Although one would have expected that if his goal was to stay in long enough to establish credibility as a veep, he'd have stayed in until the southwestern primaries, it's possible that he's simply out of money, and he is in any event a very credible veep - Clinton/Richardson would be a formidable ticket, I think, particularly if the GOP contest gets really nasty and fractious as it seems likely to.

George M. Spencer said...

He's a bureaucratic administrator; his competitors are all charismatic leaders.

He lacked that 'x' factor.

Obama, Hill, Edwards--they've got a weird Stephen King glow.

Wouldn't want to meet any of them on a foggy night in Maine.

Peter V. Bella said...

Ann,

The aesthetic angle was only made out of fairness, as a great deal of fun was had over the "old lady pic" of Hillary. BTW, it is a bad haircut and a bad dye job.

Of course, I have no haircut and no dye job. Who am I to talk?

Peter V. Bella said...

I wonder who he is going to support? He wroked for the Clintons. Will he go to them or to Obama? This could get interesting.

Laura Reynolds said...

He'll likely stay neutral until its decided. Anyway the NM legislature is soon to be in session and those crooks need his leadership to open with a silent prayer.

746.43 said...

Shallow y'all are. There never was hope for a candidate with any sophistication in science or math, and with the loss of Dodd and Richardson, we've lost the only ones who could speak a foreign language fluently. Teddy Roosevelt was the last president who could, and now we are used to a president who speaks English worse than Musharraf.

blake said...

Or is he?

This could be a thing like they did with Fred. But there isn't a primary tomorrow is there?

garage mahal said...

Deb!

Do come by more often won't you?

Randy said...

"I don't see what else he could have done." - Dorothy Parker

Peter gets my vote for best response today. As to Richardson being qualified, his well-publicized comments in the wake of Bhutto's assassination destroyed his credibility as well as his claim to possess the diplomatic skills necessary for the 21st century.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Meade asked:

"Does that qualify me to be a pollster/pundit guy? I most certainly think it does."

Most certainly not - you just violated the #1 & cardinal rule of punditocracy by admitting you once had an opinion that contradicted the opinion you had in your latest column or TV soundbite.

Simon said...

Deb said...
"[W]ith the loss of Dodd and Richardson, we've lost the only ones who could speak a foreign language fluently."

Why would that matter, and assuming it does, which foreign language is it most important for a President to be conversant in?

Randy said...

Well, Simon, John Kerry spoke French, and everyone knows French is the superior language so he should have been elected in 2004.

Aside: Both Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush claim to be conversant in Spanish. THen again, Australia's new PM, Kevin Rudd apparently really does speak fluent Mandarin. I'm not sure but I think that is a first for anyone in a top spot in a non Chinese-speaking nation.

Revenant said...

[W]ith the loss of Dodd and Richardson, we've lost the only ones who could speak a foreign language fluently.

I'd settle for a President who can say "please stop sneaking across our border illegally".

In any language.

Mortimer Brezny said...

The aesthetic angle is troubling. But in the future, everyone needs to know that they need to pay some attention to how they look or we shallow people are going to shun them. It's a shame we didn't get to the point where he got fair consideration, but this is how we are.

As if people don't know that already!? Attractive people have a natural advantage and there are simple steps everyday people use to increase their appeal, including hygeine, exercise, dressing formally and well, but not flashily, smiling and eye contact, using hand motions to accentuate rhetorical highpoints, and communicating at a moderate distance. Richardson never seemed to have combed his hair, had oodles of sweat pouring from his brow, and motioned with his elephantine body like a punctured dirigible. To be fair, the governor is an excellent public speaker, if rambling incoherence is your touchstone of greatness.

It is not as if this doesn't go both ways. The American people loathe Mitt Romney. Romney comes across like Kal-el the Sleazy Car Salesman. ("Hey, it runs on kryptonite! I'm telling ya, it's great!) Everytime he opens his mouth, a PowerPoint presentation earns its wings. He looks like a porn actor. With a pink house.

A President should be fluent in Arabic. So he can insult Osama in his own tongue. On Al Jazeera. While carving a Christmas ham. After knocking back a shot of Jim Beam. On Ramadan. Flanked by 72 bikini-clad ladies. Who have driver's licenses.

EnigmatiCore said...

"Everytime he opens his mouth, a PowerPoint presentation earns its wings."

Win.

tjl said...

"[W]ith the loss of Dodd and Richardson, we've lost the only ones who could speak a foreign language fluently"

Spanish is hardly a foreign language in New Mexico, where it predates English by several centuries.

MadisonMan said...

How wonderful that Democrats get to choose among senators now.

Greybeard said...

He may have been best qualified.
But when a guy says he was drafted by a professional baseball team, then says "oops, I'm sorry... guess I wasn't", I'm certainly not gonna vote for him for Prez!

Roger J. said...

I remain unconvinced that resumes are all that important. Leadership (however defined), a set of core values which are not poll-driven, and judgment seem to me the most important. YMMV.

Anonymous said...

"Teddy Roosevelt was the last president who could (speak a foreign language)..."

Hoover spoke Chinese. Don't you people watch Jeopardy?

Jeremy said...

Rastajenk - you beat me to it.

Randy said...

You're right, Rastajenk! I'd forgotten all about Hoover. His wife spoke Chinese as well, IIRC.

blake said...

...and Mort presents an early entry in the "best rants of 2008" category.