Bill Richardson: New Hampshire Post Debate Interview (troops out of Iraq now)

[Mugsy]

Run time: 07:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCRk-DUumHA   Posted on YouTube: September 27, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 27, 2007 By DU Member: Mugsy Views on DU: 567

 
Tweety does erroneously say Richardson is the "only" candidate saying he'd pull troops out of Iraq "immediately", but he is in fourth place, and among the front-runners, the statement is accurate.

[xiamiam]

1. he also did not rule out striking Iran...which surprised me and turned me off...nt

[Mugsy]

2. What choice did he have?

I'm not crazy about the fact he left the door open on striking Iran, but really now, could he *really* go on national TV and say that there is no circumstance in which he'd strike Iran? The media and the Right-wing plutocracy would have him for lunch.

[Pawel K]

3. Because of these dumb statements is why he isn't up front in the polls

I'm from New Mexico, I like Richardson. But he is not ready to be a presidential candidate and he should not be running right now. It is well known that you can not pull out all of our troops right now this second. A withdraw of that many troops would take around a year, all the military experts seem to agree on that.

This is just as dumb as when he said homosexuality is a choice.

[Mugsy]

4. You missed the debate.

During the debate last night, Bill said the Generals told him you could pull out (iirc) "2 brigades every six weeks" if you "leave some light equipment behind".

Kucinich (whom I like) is the one who said he's have ALL the troops out by April, 2009... which you acknowledge is not feasible.

[Pawel K]

5. I did miss the debate

but did he name which generals told him this?

I like Kucinich too, but I would love to know what he is basing that information off.

[Mugsy]

6. Can't find names

He didn't name the specific Generals (though I doubt they'd want their names revealed anyway), and I can't find the names on his website, though he does quote one General by name, Lt Gen Gard (Ret), that endorses his exit strategy.

[Pawel K]

7. I hope he got smarter in that regard

since he is actually talking to somebody that knows what needs to be done. With all due respect to him he was talking out of his ass before when he said his first day in office he would start removing troops which would be a total nightmare. How can you possibly start doing something on that kind of a scale without a single meeting with your policy advisers and access to ral intelligence once you are in office.

Don't get me wrong, he's been an awesome governor here in NM. Our economy is through the roof, job growth is high, taxes on the poor are low, health care is more available with each day that passes, education is up, and he has somewhere near a 80% approval rating. But he has made too many mistakes in this campaign already, I can't imagine how badly he would do if he was running in the general election.