Bill Richardson for President?

Bill Richardson is effectively a dark horse candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Few people know very much about him. I only know a little, but I think that he is worth considering.

I once attended a congressional hearing (House Science Committee) at which he was testifying when he was Secretary of Energy about security problems at the national labs. He came across as being very competent, very disciplined, very patient, and very sensible. Overall, that's the simple phrase I'd use to describe him: competent and sensible.

Yeah, he doesn't have much in the way of charisma or passion, but I'm not convinced that that's what this country needs right now. I think we need somebody who is willing to put ideaology and passion aside and focus intensely on hard-core sensibility. He also seems quite effective as a diplomat, which seems to be a quality that the U.S. needs right now.

As I said, even I don't know much about him, so it behooves us all to do our homework on him. I suspect that he's a centrist, but I don't know for sure.

He's certainly not in the top three, but I wouldn't count him out yet.

The real bottom line is that if he was our President, I would probably be able to sleep well at night.

-- Jack Krupansky