Bill Richardson

RED OAK — Showcasing a Iowa Rotary Club-ready folksy sense of humor and old-school politician’s patience for pressing of flesh, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson Saturday spent nearly an hour with a few dozen Red Oak residents in the southwest reaches of the Hawkeye State..

Richardson, the popular New Mexico governor, covered a wide swath of issues, telling the audience — and a media entourage that included Spanish-language international broadcast organization Univision — at Kate & Lainie’s  Coffee House that the United States should withdraw all troops from Iraq by Dec. 31.

The U.S. presence should be followed  by an internationally supported all-Muslim peace-keeping force, Richardson said.

“Our troops in Iraq have become a target,” Richardson said. “They are viewed as the occupiers.”

A former U.N. ambassador, congressmen and secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Richardson said he has the experience to use diplomacy effectively before reaching for the guns of the American military — that he could ask questions first, broker deals, and shoot later if it comes to it.

The United States must move past President George W. Bush’s damaging philosophy of cutting off talks with countries with which it has disagreements.

“Pretty soon, we’ll be talking to only the Vatican,” Richardson said.

Richardson said Iowa could be play a leading role in improving agriculture on a global scale, a foreign aid effort that would benefit the farm community at home and boost the nation’s reputation abroad.

“You used to do that with Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution,” he said.

Richardson’s visit to the small GOP-leaning Montgomery County seat — home of the most celebrated murder trial in Iowa history, the still-unsolved 1912 Villisca axe murders — is part of his campaign’s strategy to play the Iowa caucuses game by the old rules, not rely on star quality and packed events that don't offer the access Iowans have come to expect, demand even.

“I’m not here for a rally with 2,000 people and then I leave,”Richardson said.

The Des Moines Register reported late Saturday night on its Web site that Richardson is making inroads with Iowa Democrats. He’s climbed to 10 percent in the latest Register Iowa caucuses poll, behind former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., at 29 percent and U.S. senators Barack Obama, D-Ill., 23 percent and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., 21 percent.

“Once people see him, it’s an easy sell,” Mike Stratton, a senior advisor to Richardson and one of the Democratic party’s behind-the-scenes power brokers, told Iowa Independent.

Jennifer Horner, director of the Southwest Iowa Latino Resource Center based in Red Oak, said Richardson is “compassionate” and “real.”

“I feel really good about him,” Horner said. “There are some really strong Democratic candidates.”

Horner, 35, a single mother and Red Oak native who is white, said white, rural Iowans will accept a Latino candidate.

“I think they will,” she said. “I think he’s playing things in the right way. He can’t be too sensitive and compassionate about immigrants. I probably am more than he and I understand that. He has to appeal to a wide range of people.”

When Iowans meet Richardson they see a Latino but they hear a white person.

“I do too,” Horner said. “But he’s definitely got Latino in him and I know he will make responsible choices as far as when it comes immigration reform but I also understand that he has to have kind of a tough stance on the border.”

Richardson, a California native, is the son of an American father and Mexican mother. He grew up in New England and Mexico City.
Horner said Richardson also may have some crossover appeal with Republicans.

She said one elderly Republican friend at the Richardson event leaned over to her sand said: “I’m not a Democrat but I think he’s wonderful.”

“That might sum it up right there,” Horner said.

Carroll County Democratic Party Chairman Butch Heisterkamp, who is necessarily neutral at this point, believes western Iowans will be receptive to Richardson’s message, and that he may be the candidate to emerge from the back of the pack, if one does.

“He’s going to cause a lot of interest as he gets around more,” Heisterkamp said after hearing Richardson speak recently in Denison. “He’s very strong on foreign relations which we are so weak on right now.”

In Red Oak and Denison, Richardson highlighted his international experience.

Diplomacy shouldn’t be viewed as a “reward” for good behavior, he said.
“Even bad guys need something,” Richardson said. “You can hold a carrot in one hand and a big stick in the other.”

Richardson said he has the resume and track record to stare down America’s enemies, to reach accords that prevent the nation from sending troops to combat except as a last resort.

“I stood toe-to-toe with the world’s bad guys, Saddam Hussein, North Korea, the Sudan, Fidel Castro, (Omar) al-Bashir (Sudan),” Richardson said in Denison. “President Clinton used to say, ‘We have problems in our foreign policy. There are bad dictators. Bad people like Richardson so we’ll send him there.’”

On other issues, Richardson took the following positions at the Red Oak event:
— All Americans should be able to participate in the Congressional medical plan.
— Veterans should be provided “heroes” cards that would entitle them to health care anywhere in the nation.
— K-12 schools in  the United States should have mandatory physical education.
— There should be a cap on credit card interest rates associated with the payment of medical bills.
— The $500 billion being spent on the war in Iraq should go to health care and education and other domestic issues.