Bill Out, Edwards In

I endorse the post-NH decisions of Bill Richardson to abandon his Presidential bid and John Edwards to stay with his.

On the merits, I think they were the right choices: Richardson's 5% in NH underperformed low expectations, and Edwards has earned the right to stay in for the Unofficial National Primary on Feb. 5. J.E. has put in the mileage and contributed to the debates--though Biden, Dodd, Richardson, and Kucinich might all say the same--but also has earned his spot from the results to date and those we could anticipate: Edwards' weaker states still put him in position to earn delegates, and his stronger efforts will truly contend.

I will go into Edwards and strategic thinking about his predicament in subsequent posts, but now I want to address Bill's.

Richardson should have bowed out and taken the Senate seat (for life, usually) that had his name engraved upon it. When I advised him to do it, I thought he could even take it from Pete Domenici, which would have made him a national hero to the party. Now, if he decided to run for it, he'd be close to a traitor: it now belongs (in every sense except that of having been elected for it) to Tom Udall, his friend, ally, and recent supporter for President. So that must be out.

He's spoken of his dislike of the Vice President's job, but I think it's a good one for him , and I think further he should be on the short list of both Clinton and Obama. His big ideas (all troops out of Iraq, in order to end The Occupation; ending aid to Musharraf if he fails to allow clean elections) are ones that sound good, deserve close examination, but don't necessarily comprise the best policy--just the kind of thing a VP should suggest in a Cabinet meeting.

Of course, the main thing a VP should do is help the ticket, and does Bill Richardson ever do that! The Democrats might think the Hispanic vote is theirs for the taking after the various Republican immigration xenophobia colloquies (a/k/a "debates"), but they would be only half-right: they still need to take the vote somehow. Nominating Bill for VP would be a better campaign strategy to do that, rather than antagonizing white and African-American men by pandering to pro-immigration Hispanics. It would also do a lot to wrap up New Mexico for the Democrats and give the Congressional delegation a gain in both the Senate and House.