Markos may still be upset about Bill Richardson's uninspiring stop on MTP, but in the meantime Bill Richardson (full disclosure: I've already decided that Bill Richardson has my primary vote, and I don't think baggage-laden Hillary Clinton, professional presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, or political neophyte Barack Obama have a snot's chance to convert me) has made himself stand out as the only serious candidate with a plan to bring all the troops home.
It should be front-page news (and it briefly was on Yahoo!). But (what a surprise) here on Kos it's nowhere to be found. Can it be there's more threads on the... flu pandemic... than this?
Richardson, making slow progress in the race but trying to break out into the top tier of candidates, tried to differentiate himself by stressing that he would leave "zero troops" in Iraq. He pointed out that his leading opponents have supported legislation that would leave behind an undetermined number of residual forces to train and equip Iraqi forces, among other things.
"With all due respect to my outstanding Democratic colleagues — Senators Clinton, Obama, Dodd and Biden — they all voted for timeline legislation that had loopholes," the New Mexico governor said. "Those loopholes allow this president, or any president, to leave an undetermined number of troops in Iraq indefinitely. And this is the same legislation that former Senator Edwards says we should send back and back to the president over and over again until he signs it."
Richardson would leave a small Marine contingent behind in Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy. But, he said, "if the embassy is not safe, then they're all coming home too."
He announced a Web site for supporters of his plan to sign a petition backing it — Notroopsleftbehind.com.
Isn't this, simply, the essence of what the anti-Iraq war dailykos folks have always wanted all along? Here's a substantive step and a clear position on the war that has been lacking by Edwards, Clinton, and Obama - and it completely sinks through the cracks.
Have you given Richardson a look? well, maybe it's time to wake up and take a second look.