Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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Friday night in Des Moines, amidst a severe thunderstorm pounding down on the metro area, New Mexico Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson celebrated the grand opening of his Iowa headquarters. In a campaign event simulcast live in Davenport, Waterloo, Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids, Richardson highlighted his plans for his first six days in office were he to be elected president.
Richardson’s stump speech was interrupted early on when he recognized former Central Iowa Congressman Neal Smith in the crowd. Smith, a Democrat, served in the US House with Richardson from 1983 to 1995. The former congressman had only positive things to say about Richardson.
“This is one of the greatest guys I have ever served with,” Smith said. “We need to get back to leading by example and there is no one as good as [Richardson] to do that.”
Richardson joked after Smith’s comments that it sure sounded like an endorsement to him.
When asked by Iowa Independent if he was endorsing Richardson, Smith said he wasn’t endorsing anyone.
“He is a very competent man,” Smith added.
Richardson stressed that today was the beginning of the campaign and that Iowa was going to play the pivotal role it has for the last two decades in determining the next president of the United States. He appealed to the sensibilities of of Iowans by adding “You are not going to be deceived by those who have determined who the top candidates are.”
While recognizing Iowa’s importance, along with early states like New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, Richardson also said it was ok that many states had decided to move up their primary dates to February 5th to be able to have influence like Iowa because many of them were Western states which had never had the opportunity. Richardson remarked earlier in the day to IowaPolitics.com that he could win Western states that his other Democratic opponents could not do.
His comments were a result of a question dealing with electability, and comments that former Sen. John Edwards made at a Carrol, IA, event last weekend. Iowa Independent’s Douglas Burns reported that Edwards told the crowd that he was the candidate who could win in both the primary and the general election.
During his remarks, Richardson highlighted several focuses of his first days in office, including initiating plans to get the US out of Iraq, a plan to make the US energy independent, a plant for health care for everyone and ways to reassert American values at home as a way of showing the world just what America stands for. Included in his litany of values was the protection of a woman’s right to choose, an emphasis on civil rights, strict and compassionate immigration laws, and the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison.
Richardson will spend the rest of Friday at a meet-and-greet session in Ankeny. Saturday he plans to attend the Downtown Des Moines Farmer’s Market and stop in Indianola for a campaign event. In Iowa, he currently is running in a strong fourth place position behind front-runner Edwards, and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama according to most polls.
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