[sailaway21]

tdw,
Bill Richardson is about as reasonable as a Democrat gets these days, with the possible exception of Joe Lieberman. That alone makes him unpalatable to the powers, as they currently be, in the Democratic Party. He could probably finesse his ties to the Clinton administration, and he is desirable because he is Hispanic, but he is not nearly left wing enough to survive (read, raise money) the Democratic primary. The money in Democratic party politics is in a race to the left, an area that a less known canidate like Richardson cannot go with out punting the general election. Right now, Obama is their show horse and Hillary has enough money to continue to appear middle of the road and still win the nomination. About all he can hope for is that Hillary and Obama end up in a conflagration, and he is left unscathed and looking like the most reasonable alternative. The one major hole card he has is that he is a Governor. The American people have a leariness of electing Senators to the presidency, and seem to have a marked preference for canidates with executive office experience, ie..governorships. the last Senator elected to the presidency was JFK! When I am wagering, I follow a little rule of never betting on the end of a streak. 44 years is a heck of a streak. A record of futility only eclipsed by the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Cubs. And, speaking of Chicago, it is widely acknowledged that JFK wouldn't have won without Cook County counting their votes in an "interesting" fashion. Who was the last Senator to win the White House before JFK? That's a head-scratcher, eh?