The dream derailed

It was July 2007 (I believe) when I went to my first Richardson meeting -- the first one held in Massachusetts. I certainly wavered in my support of him as stupid things came out of his mouth -- Iowa has a "God-given right" to go first in the nation? What?

And maybe if there were another candidate without an obvious strike against him, I would have left for good. But there isn't. And at the end of the day, a lifetime of distinctive public service outweigh campaign gaffes in my book -- but few others'. For me, for my issues and my criteria, there wasn't anyone on the same level as him.

Richardson knew education like nobody else in either race, and with him goes our best hope of straightening out the public system for a while. Its laughable to compare the bromides of "making the system better" and "helping it achieve its promise" or "reform" or "change" to Richardson's off-the-cuff debate answer on No Child Left Behind:

I would scrap it. It doesn’t work. It is the law. It is not just an unfunded mandate, but the one- size-fits-all doesn’t work. It doesn’t emphasize teacher training. It doesn’t emphasize the disabled kids. It doesn’t -- English learning kids don’t get help.

The worst thing it does is it takes districts and schools that are not doing well, takes their funds away, penalizes them. If a school is not doing well, we help that school.

The last thing we need to do, relating to teachers, is the key to a good education in this country is a strong teacher. I would have a minimum wage for all our teachers, $40,000 per year.

And I would emphasize science and math. I would also bring, to make sure our kids that are not scoring well in science and math, 29th in the world, to unlock those minds in science and math, I would have a major federal program of art in the schools... music, dancing, sculpture, and the arts.

I had to cut out the five breaks for applause that are noted in the transcript.

Richardson also has visited more countries than half these candidates have heard of. There are people alive in the Sudan because Richardson brokered a fragile cease-fire there...and that's not the only place. North Korean negotiators made one stop from Pyongyang to Washington, DC for a meeting with the State Department -- they wanted to talk to Governor Richardson.

And dang it, Richardson as our nominee would have been the threshold to a comfortable and inviting home in the Democratic Party for Latino voters. How are you going to argue immigration with someone from New Mexico?

Oh well. It's over. It's obvious why he didn't make a splash, and I won't re-hash that here. It's just a sorry night in so many ways.