Biden Targets Richardson

Sen. Joe Biden may have had his nihilator gators on Friday, because, to quote Snoop Dogg’s remix of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.,” his “pimp hand” was “way strong.” (I didn’t want to quote from misogynous rap lyrics to describe what happened, but I can’t think of better language to describe what I witnessed.) The full weight of Biden’s campaign operation, which so far has been relatively quiet, started coming down on Gov. Bill Richardson.

“BIDEN STATEMENT ON RICHARDSON’S IRRESPONSIBLE POSITION ON IRAQ” was the title of one afternoon press release. The release included a research report on 6 ways the New Mexico governor has shifted his positions on the Iraq war: he supported, then opposed, Biden-Gelb; he advocated residual troops and now makes his opposition to them a central focus of his campaign; he favored a 6-month withdrawal target, but now his “timeline is a moving target”; he argued for diplomacy, but now says troop withdrawal must come first; he was for the war as recently as 2005, even though he is now against it (this strikes me as a little “glass houses,” but whatev); and — this one’s probably a bit of a stretch — Richardson promised to fund the troops but opposed the 2007 supplemental funding bill.

Richardson fired back a response in a press release that mentions Biden by name:

Senator Biden’s plan to leave troops in Iraq means his plan has very little chance to succeed. The parties will not even sit down in a meaningful way until we get all the forces out.

Senator Biden keeps drawing an analogy to Bosnia, but he has that one backwards: the peacekeepers could only enforce the peace after the deal was made. Using U.S. peacekeepers in Iraq would turn the guarantors into targets, thus plunging any settlement back into war.

The Biden campaign also brought South Carolina State Rep. Fletcher Smith to Iowa for the weekend. Smith had been a state co-chair of Richardson’s campaign before defecting to the Biden camp over the candidates’ differing Iraq plans. This was a black eye for Richardson’s campaign who, for their part on Friday, released a new name to fill Smith’s slot in Richardson’s South Carolina campaign, State Rep. Ken Kennedy.

The Richardson campaign also directed press to an article from The News Journal in Wilmington, DE, which notes that Biden is not even his home state’s favorite presidential candidate.

But the Richardson campaign, which has been occupying a space in the poll numbers that allows him to get some attention when he attacks his opponents but which has not yet mattered enough for his opponents to attack him back, is showing signs of wear. Richardson has taken a lot of different positions over the last few years, and he has little shame when it comes to pandering. That has endeared him to voters who admire his honesty about it, but it means he could wither under attacks.

Also of note, in the Des Moines Register’s relatively accurate Iowa Poll Richardson has gone from double digits here back down to single digits, now within the margin of error of Biden (8% for Richardson; 5% for Biden). Biden has ticked up slowly but surely by focusing intensely on Eastern Iowa and the State House. But even if Biden wins all of Richardson’s support, he’ll have 13%, which won’t be enough on its own to make a dent statewide. But both campaigns have likely figured out that they are the two “foreign policy resume” candidates, and they are competing for the same voters.

Or, more cynically, Biden may realize that by attacking Richardson, he does not endanger his cabinet position offers from any of the frontrunners…