Meatstick Opinion: Bill Richardson

I still like Dennis Kucinich but I have begun to realize that I am taking Dennis' presidential run more serious than he is. I went to his website the other day and it wasn't even fully up and running. C'mon Dennis, all it takes is a Craigslist ad for "webmaster needed" and about $2,000 to pry some high school nerd away from his Harry Potter book to run a website for you. So, now that I realize that Kucinich is basically a non-player I have had to shift my focus. This leads me to Bill Richardson.

Bill Richardson has made some recent gains in Iowa. He is now up to 13% in a recent poll. Unfortunately that only puts him in fourth place. However, an interesting thing to note about the Iowa poll is that Richardson leads the independent vote, 25% to Obama's 21%. I think the people of Iowa are finally starting to realize what the rest of America hasn't yet. Bill Richardson is a really good candidate for President. He has a long career of government service (state department, US Ambassador, Sec. of Energy) and good ideas to back up his experience. I like many of his ideas, including:

• Removal of troops from Iraq
• National minimum wage for teachers
• Scrapping No Child Left Behind
• Gym class in elementary school to help combat childhood obesity
• "Heroes Health Card" that would allow veterans to receive medical care whenever and wherever they need it.

I realize that either Obama, Edwards, or Clinton will probably win the nomination of the Democratic party. My hope is that whoever does receive the nomination gives Bill Richardson a serious look as their Vice Presidential running mate. I think Richardson is the type of person that Republicans won't necessarily hate as much as Democrats loathe Cheney. After all, Richardson was endorsed by the NRA as a Governor and he has said that he would accept their endorsement again. That is something all Republicans can like about the man. Am I the only one who thinks it would be nice to get past all the hatred, at least for a few years?

Oh yea, speaking of Cheney...I am sorry to say that I have to finally change my quote at the top of my webpage. Since I started this website my quote has always been the wise words of Dick Cheney who claimed in 2005, "the insurgency in Iraq is in the last throes." You didn't have to be Douglas MacArthur to realize this statement was absolutely ridiculous from he moment the words left his mouth. Yesterday, over two years later, Mr. Cheney finally admitted that he was wrong about the insurgency:

"My estimate at the time - and it was wrong, it turned out to be incorrect... I thought there were a series of these milestones that would in fact undermine the insurgency and make it less than it was at that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust.''

Maybe someday he'll admit the invasion was a mistake too.