It was rather appropriate that I ran across this news item after a post on the manner in which the media has made major issues out of off minor asides by Al Gore. Bill Richardson has supported Iowa in having the first caucus:
“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord should be the first caucus and primary,” Richardson, New Mexico’s governor said at the Northwest Iowa Labor Council Picnic. “And I want you to know who was the first candidate to sign a pledge not to campaign anywhere if they got ahead of Iowa. It was Bill Richardson.”
Having seen other examples of Richardson’s sense of humor, Richardson’s previous statements on religion, and considering that nobody would think God has any interest in who has the first caucus or primary, I have no doubt that Richardson was joking here. Besides commenting on all the recent noise about the primaries, he might have also been playing off of the many times Bush has had comments such as that God chose him to be president or wanted him to invade Iraq. I’m also certain that Richardson had many other statements of far more substance than this joke.
Update: The Politico reports that a Richardson spokesman has verified that Richardson is joking. I wouldn’t have thought anyone would have taken this any other way than as a joke, but from the comments around the blogosphere it appears some bloggers did not realize this. (Returning later, some bloggers prefer to continue attacking when they think there is blood and continue to claim that Richardson really believes that both God and the Constitution say Iowa should be first to vote. Some people are just unable to give up their biases even when faced with reality.)
Update II: At least another news source is reporting on Bill Richardson and a real issue–taking on George Bush’s war on cancer patients.
C’mon now. The guy is obviously joking about how serious Iowan’s take maintaining their first in country status.
And a pretty good use of snark, IMHO.
Of course he’s joking, as I wrote above. Unfortunately most blogs are commenting on this as if he was serious. There’s actually bloggers writing on how the Constitution says nothing on this topic.
For his sake, I just hope that the Iowa voters can see the humor in the situation and are not offended by his joke.