Democratic politician Bill Richardson had a long, varied political career that at one point looked like it might allow him to make a credible run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination on the grounds that he was one-fourth ultra-WASP Mayflower descendant and three-fourth Latin. But his diversity Pokemon points got steamrollered by Barack Obama’s higher score for being half black.
Richardson was the grandson of a New England naturalist who got into a scandal and headed south of the border. His father was born in Nicaragua and opened Citibank’s office in Mexico City. Richardson grew up for 13 years in Mexico, then went to an Atlantic Seaboard boarding school, as was family tradition, and then Tufts near Boston. (Either his father or grandfather while playing football for Tufts against Army in 1913 had broken Dwight Eisenhower’s leg.)
Richardson worked in Washington as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, then moved to New Mexico figuring they’d like to vote for a Hispanic. After one defeat, he hit his stride and was elected to many terms in Congress and a couple as governor of New Mexico. He also was UN Ambassador and Secretary of Energy. His foreign affairs specialty was negotiating to get high-profile American citizen arrestees released from foreign prisons, which he did dozens of times, which got him on TV a lot.
His resume was a little like George H.W. Bush’s, but with more evidence that he could win elections.
He worked hard on his tan to look more Latino.
All in all, on paper Richardson seemed like a promising candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Being governor of a slightly crooked state like New Mexico and having a fair amount of foreign policy experience is an unusual combination. Being both and rather Latino is especially unusual.
But nothing happened for him when he ran. Instead, Obama’s half-blackness caused a sensation and nobody paid attention to Richardson or his complex story about being Hispanic.
