[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Roadrunner911

excerpt from Tim Russert interview of Richardson in May 07:

MR. RUSSERT: But let’s go through the resume a little bit. First, there’s governor of New Mexico. As you well know, they rank states in a whole variety of categories from one being the best, 50th being the worst. This is New Mexico’s scorecard, and you are the governor. Percent of people living below the poverty line, you’re 48. Percent of children below, 48. Median family income, 47. People without health insurance, 49. Children without health insurance, 46. Teen high school dropouts, 47. Death rate due to firearms, 48. Violent crime rate, 46. You’re the very bottom of all those statistics of all 50 states, and you’re the governor for five years.

Bottomline from NM, he's done very little except run for president.

For anyone still interested in the response Richardson gave click the link below. The quote below is what followed the Tim Russert question/statement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18818527/page/3/

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, Tim, let me just say that we’ve made enormous progress in all of those areas. Let me, let me talk to you about child poverty. I followed eight years of a Republican administration that did not invest in health care. What I have done as governor is I’ve insured every child under five. Secondly, I’ve gotten rid of junk food in schools. Through my wife Barbara’s efforts, we’ve increased immunization rates. We have expanded health care access to working families. As president, I would be a president for the middle class. I would deal with these poverty issues. What would I do as president? One, unionizing. That is critically important. Only 8 percent of our people are unionized. I think a union gives a family an opportunity for health care. I’d expand the child care tax credit. I would expand the earned income tax credit. I have cut taxes for the middle class in New Mexico. I have cut taxes for working moms. For working families I’ve cut taxes. We have significantly improved in the poverty area. I could give you similar statistics in health care and education, the...

MR. RUSSERT: But these rankings are troubling.

GOV. RICHARDSON: Well, we’re a poor state, Tim, but the fact is that we have been moving forward. And I was re-elected with 69 percent of the vote, 40 percent Republican. I have been given very strong rankings as a, as a governor. Governors deal with problems directly, Tim. This is why I believe historically this nation has elected governors. I balanced budgets five times. At the same time that I balance budgets, we’ve given tax cuts to every New Mexican. We’ve increased spending on education and health care to attack some of those problems that you’ve seen.

The status of being from a poor state like Arkansas (Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee) will always raise some questions. Questions which people seem to be willing to look past national ratings and looks towards records and progress made.

Richardson was the best man (or woman) for the job, too bad it's all about glam.