Richardson could learn from Dodd

The New York Times reports that, according to Project Vote Smart, only three of the mainstream presidential candidates managed to answer politically risky questions on the organization's “political courage test” that forces them to take a side on tough issues.
All three of those candidates happened to be democratic-- John Edwards, Chris Dodd and Mike Gravel. Two mainstream candidates-- Bill Richardson and Mitt Romney-- declined to participate.

It's no surprise that the feisty Gravel-- who sees nothing wrong with calling Americans fat and stupid-- didn't refrain from giving his opinion. Edwards has been ratcheting up the dialogue surrounding his campaign and portraying himself as the straight-shooter in comparison to Clinton, so that makes sense as well. Dodd's passing marks from PVS should perhaps be the most noteworthy, given his impressive-- though fruitless-- attempts to stand out among the lower-tier candidates as honest and transparent.

During the Oct. 30 democratic debate, right before Clinton gave her fateful, flip-flopping response about Spitzer's proposed license program, Dodd quickly responded that he disagreed with the program. He, quite frankly, seemed like the only candidate really listening and thinking about the question. Next, Dodd announced Wednesday that he had convinced every democratic campaign-- except Richardson's-- to commit to prohibiting staff or out-of-state volunteers from caucusing in Iowa. Now, with this test, he has once again shown true character. Too bad nobody cares.

Richardson's refusal to even participate in the Project Vote Smart test is troubling because, unlike Dodd, his campaign actually has the momentum to go somewhere if he were to step up his game. By standing out as the only democrat not willing to declare his transparency on issues-- and the only democrat not promising to forgo shady caucusing tactics-- he can only lose that momentum. Sure, he just got nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for the fifth time. Yes, that's pretty special. But as MSNBC points out, so did Stalin. Richardson really does seem to be running for VP-- if his campaign is to be for anything else, much more should be expected of him.