By THE NEW MEXICAN

Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:45 pm

Smooth Move

Has Gov. Bill Richardson finally found himself a campaign theme song?

According to NBC’s First Read, when Richardson took the stage to address  The Laborers' International Union of North America Tuesday inn Chicago, the music that was playing was Carlos Santana’s hit single “Smooth.”

Apparently  Richardson had a much smoother time addressing this union than he did the day before in Washington, D.C., when he called the Service Employees International Union “AFSCME” (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees). 

First Read quoted the governor telling the union Tuesday, “... I’m the smoothest talker or the best-looking guy, I’m working on that.”

Poll bump in New Hampshire

Two new polls in New Hampshire published this week show Gov. Bill Richardson moving into double digits in New Hampshire, where in most polls he’s been hovering just below the 10 percent mark.

The only problem for Richardson is that both the Rasmussen and the Franklin Pierce University polls have Sen. Hillary Clinton increasing her lead to 40 percent or just below. Richardson is in fourth place with 11 percent in both polls.

According to the Franklin Pierce poll, 33 percent of the 403 likely voters interviewed last week said Clinton is the most qualified candidate to handle the situation in Iraq. Richardson and Obama were tied for second place with 10 percent.
 

You got to have friends

Right now presidential elections are still decided in the old boring way — caucuses, primaries, voters, etc. Perhaps one day they’ll be decided by the number of MySpace friends a candidate has.

But in that area, Gov. Bill Richardson is doing even worse than he is in polls of likely voters.

A Web site called Irregular Times posted Tuesday about the number of MySpace friends the various candidates have. I checked. Among the Democrats, Richardson comes in a modest fifth.

This was posted at 3:21 p.m. — we’re not sure which time zone. Shortly after 4 p.m. Mountain Time, The New Mexican checked the numbers and was surprised to learn that Richardson and Joe Biden actually had lost a few friends, while most of the other candidates had gained a few.

Here’s how the numbers came in about 4:20 pm MDT:

• Barack Obama : 176,123 friends
• Hillary Clinton : 56,200 friends
• John Edwards : 47,267 friends
• Dennis Kucinich : 31,283 friends
• Bill Richardson : 20,462 friends
• Joseph Biden : 14,082 friends
• Mike Gravel : 9,881 friends
• Christopher Dodd : 8,787 friends

Among Republicans, libertarian Rep. Ron Paul is leading his opponents in the MySpace battle. He has 62,505 friends, while his closest competitor, Mitt Romney has just slightly more MySpace friends than Mike Gravel.