Bill Richardson House party / Persepective of a Conservative

He came by Reno for a house party last night. I thought he was reasonably impressive. He could use a little finishing, some of his jokes could be easily taken out of context if heard in TV clip form. On the whole however, he was very personable and direct.

Most interesting, the house party was four houses down from where my conservative aunt and uncle live. So I stopped by and asked if they wished to attend, as I would be going. They agreed to come along and see him speak. My aunt is a Republican whose is a Giuliani supporter who also likes Hillary, and my uncle is a libertarian type. They are both against the war. My uncle walked away a Richardson supporter, and my aunt now likes Richardson more than Clinton, because Richardson's stance on getting out of Iraq is much stronger and faster. (Yes I know, Giuliani's stance is weak, but she doesn't care. She likes him because of personality reasons.) Both are well educated, but this is the first election season they've paid any real attention to politics. Both voted for Bush.

Full disclosure: I'm an Edwards supporter with Obama as a current second choice.

Just a view from the campaign front lines.

and I hope he does a lot of house parties like this.

I don't know if he's really my first pick of the candidates, but he's the one I want to see more of. He's certainly the most qualified for the job.

would vote for Richardson in a general election over Romney, Huckabee, Tancredo, Thompson, or Hunter.

They'd vote for Giuliani or McCain over Richardson.

There was a split vote over Paul vs. Richardson.

There was also a split vote on Edwards vs. all Republicans except Giuliani or McCain.

They don't like Hillary or (I was disappointed to hear) Obama.

They laugh at Kucinich, and can't even tell you who Biden or Dodd or Gravel are.

If Paul was not in the running, I can imagine libertarians voting for him.