"Secretary" Bill Richardson?

Let's put Sweden on hold for a moment, and talk about American politics (again). Right now, the media is placing bets on Obama's cabinet choices. NYTimes.com even has a cool interactive tool that lets you compare your choices with those of other readers.

I'm excited about the prospect of Santa Fe hometown hero Bill Richardson being one of the top candidates for Secretary of State. But I also have reservations, because I realize that my excitement stems mostly from familiarity with the guy. (I even know his horse personally.) I've been living in New Mexico off and on for more than a decade, and I met Mr. Richardson on several occasions while I was writing for the Santa Fe Reporter. (I met his horse while working at the ranch where he's stabled.) Richardson is a damn nice guy. Bowl-you-over charming. But I also remember the debacle of the hard drives that went missing from Los Alamos, and how much flak Richardson took on Capitol Hill for his administration's slow and bungled reaction. (No one who lives in New Mexico was really surprised, by the way—it is the land of manana.)

And I didn't know, but just found out, that Richardson interviewed Monica Lewinsky for a U.N. post as the sex scandal was unfolding, possibly as a favor to his buddy Bill Clinton.

But putting these political stumbles aside, in my opinion, Richardson has been a pretty great governor, initiating projects like the New Mexico tax rebate for filmmakers, Spaceport America and the Railrunner train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe— all designed, and so far successfully implemented, in an effort to stimulate the state's formerly sagging economy.

But Richardson's diplomacy skills are the real reason he's in contention for the Secretary of State appointment. No one could argue against Richardson's remarkable negotiation skills. I was working at the Reporter in 2003 when the Bush administration had one of its first standoffs with North Korea. Bush's people didn't feel like talking to the Koreans, but Richardson did, so he personally invited them to come to Santa Fe and have a chat about their nuclear policy. And they did! Crisis averted, no red button pushed. Go Bill!

Slate described some of Richardson's other victories in this passage from a 2000 article:

Clinton passed over Richardson for the Cabinet in 1992, but the president and the congressman, each recognizing a kindred spirit, became fast friends. Soon Clinton deputized Richardson to act as an unofficial U.S. negotiator with thugs and monsters. In the mid-'90s, Richardson freed a U.S. helicopter pilot downed over North Korea, a pair of Americans who inadvertently crossed into Iraq, an American jailed in Bangladesh, and three aid workers held hostage in Sudan, among others. He was dispatched to butter up Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, Haiti's military dictators, and Burma's tyrants.

Richardson courted the despots with the same rumpled, hail-fellow-well-met manner that won him friends at home. He played up his friendship with the president, flattered the hostage-holders, listened to them graciously, ate their food, told self-deprecating jokes, and cajoled them with promises of good press and American sympathy. He was magic. Sudanese rebel Kerubino Kwanyin Bol was intransigent till Richardson asked to visit Kerubino's child, who was dying of measles. That request melted the warlord, who dropped his ransom demand from $2.5 million to a few jeeps and some rice. Richardson's missions won him three Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

Did you catch that? Three Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Sheesh. So, I guess despite the couple of weird incidents cited above, my overall impression is that Richardson's diplomatic skills could be a great boon to the Obama administration (I get chills typing that phrase). Plus—a Hispanic guy and a black guy leading the nation! Um, you learned from the Lewinsky thing, right Mr. Richardson?