By THE NEW MEXICAN

Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:28 am

Gov. Bill Richardson's 4.5-minute Iraq video seems to be getting much discussion on the Internet -- which assumedly was the purpose. As we reported Monday, the video is an attempt to make him stand out from the other Democratic presidential candidates -- most of whom he mentions by name -- on the issue of leaving troops behind in Iraq. The video also features testimony supporting Richardson from three anti-war bloggers, Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller of Open Left and Siun O'Connell of Firedoglake.

Here's some of the reaction:

``In his latest television ad, NM Gov. Bill Richardson is betting that three anti-war bloggers can convince Iowa Democrats that only his position on the war is pure enough. ... Richardson's ad comes days after some Democrats began to detect a distinct tone-shift in Sen. Hillary Clinton's utterances about troop withdrawal. Its content represents a bet that Democratic voters will favor the candidate who will withdraw the troops the quickest, consequences be damned.'' ~ Marc Armbinder, The  Atlantic

``Given that progressive bloggers have thus far mostly failed to inject the `residual forces' issue into the Democratic primary campaign, I'm not sure why Bill Richardson thinks putting netroots activists in his ad attempting to raise the issue will help him, but I'm glad he's raising the issue.

``One fears that Richardson may have committed too many gaffes at this point to gain traction, but I hope this ad helps him and forces the other candidates to start addressing this issue.''  ~ Matthew Yglesias, The  Atlantic

``Just in time for tomorrow night's Democratic presidential debate at Dartmouth College, Bill Richardson is going up with a new TV ad in New Hampshire that takes aim at the party's leading candidates for proposing leaving some residual forces in Iraq. ... Left unsaid: It's debatable whether it would even be feasible to get troops out of Iraq as fast as Richardson wants to, and whether it's realistic to leave no American troops in the country at all.''  ~ Political Intelligence blog, The Boston Globe

“When New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, he was hoping that netroots support would help compensate for his fundraising disadvantage in a broad field with high-profile rivals.

“Not only did that support never materialize, but in recent weeks, Richardson has become a laughingstock among some top liberal bloggers. ... With that background in mind, the news that the Richardson campaign convinced leading bloggers (Bowers and Stoller) to work with the campaign in producing a video is a bit of a coup.” ~ Beltway Blogroll

“While Richardson may have gotten several representatives from liberal blogs to appear in a paid television ad, he has not received an explicit endorsement from any of them. ... the presidential hopeful’s hard-line stance on troop withdrawal has not yet resonated with the NetRoots across the board, as evidenced in a straw poll conducted by The DailyKos — one of the largest and most influential of the liberal blogs — yesterday, in which Richardson only garnered one percent of approximately 6,300 respondents.  (Richardson spokesman Tom) Reynolds says he hopes that those numbers improve as the governor continues to differentiate himself on the Iraq issue...”  ~MSNBC’s First Read

“Look! Up in the Sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a---thirty-second campaign spot!

“So McBlogger (got) word that the Bill Richardson campaign will have a major announcement at noon on Monday. What, he's dropping out already? Seriously, what other major announcement could there be? Turns out he was just rolling out a TV spot they're going to start running in New Hampshire... lucky, lucky Granite Staters! Now, I have nothing against Bill Richardson. Apparently he's been a decent governor of New Mexico ...  But seriously... a major campaign announcement? How excited will they be if campaign HQ ever gets a soda machine that takes dollar bills?  ~ McBlogger

“... a new Bill Richardson commercial featuring the nutroots all-stars. Permit me a rationale that's just a little more cynical. I've already posted Richardson is Hilly's best choice for Veep. Hillary is also already tracking toward the middle vis-a-vis her not going to bring all the troops home statements in this the Sunday's media carnival. With the nutroots on Richardson's team, it all folds nicely into Team Clinton for the general election. I'm not claiming it's coordinated. But it makes Richardson all that more desirable as her running mate for the big show.”  ~ Riehl World View