The web of politics: Bill Richardson

(Another in a series of presidential candidate website reviews. See here for the first review, JohnMcCain.com)

For some reason, as I bring up New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s Presidential Exploratory Committee website, I have the sudden urge to take on the Detroit Lions this Thanksgiving. Has Jerry Jones endorsed him? If not, he ought to, because this website is Dallas Cowboys motif all the way. I’m surprised there aren’t cheerleaders.

Former presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy once said, “Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.” Damn, I wish the current crop of candidates would offer quips like this. Instead we’re mired in Geffengate.

Bill Richardson doesn’t seem to mention football anywhere on his site, http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/. But there’s no search engine, so I can’t be entirely sure. That’s OK, though…looking at the sites of every Democratic presidential candidate shows that none of them have search engines.

As for the meat and potatoes of Richardson’s site (or should I say the meat and bizcochito, New Mexico’s official state cookie!), here’s what we’ve got:

Familiar flag colors – check.

Email sign-up in the upper right-hand corner – check.

The five fun icons for myspace, facebook, youtube, partybuilder, and flickr - check

The phrase “saber-rattling” prominently displayed on the homepage – check.

Rotating pictures of Bill Richardson – check.

(Though Richardson should lose points here, because one of the photos in heavy rotation is a red-haired man with freckles named Lachlan McIntosh, who is Richardson’s South Carolina Statewide Director. A happy looking man, but people don’t know you Bill Richardson. Show pictures of you. You’re running for President, not Lachlan McIntosh. Which is good, because I haven’t heard a name as peculiar as Lachlan McIntosh since Lauch Faircloth. Must be a Carolinas thing.)

In short, the homepage has most everything you’d need or want. It’s all on there in a sea of blue and red. But to some extent, that’s the problem with this site: it’s a stereotypical sea of blue and red, with not much visual uniqueness to offer. And holy stars! There’s clichés, and then there are stars.

There’s one video currently offered on Richardson’s site, “The New Mexico Comeback,” a biographical short film that touts all of Richardson’s accomplishments in New Mexico. This video is great for seeing beautiful shots of New Mexico’s terrains, including its windmills and rustic mesas. I also think the voiceover does movies, or at least other commercials. Sadly, I don’t remember a lickin’ thing of substance from the video, other than lots of numbers were thrown out that made Richardson sound like a good governor and a FOB (friend of business).

As for the organization of the site, the headers are adequate. Here are the menus: About Bill, On the Issues, Newsroom, Blog, and Support Bill. Some have rollovers, and naturally the rollovers are blue. They work, but they suffer from the same symptom that the rollovers on McCain’s website suffer from: they are too dark to read. Or maybe my eyesight is going.

The bio information is probably OK, but I wanted more. The wife, Barbara, gets her own page, but dammit if her bio doesn’t end with this sentence: “Mrs. Richardson’s interests include gardening, reading and antiques.”

No word yet on whether she’s an avid bowler.

The newsroom and blog sections of this site are too much of a laundry list. The newsroom is just one press release or news clip listed after another, with no real organization thrown behind them. The presentation here is sad, and if the communications staff (who are listed on the side of the page) have any wits about them, they should revamp this area so that it can compete with the sites of other candidates. And why the hell did this news clip get posted?

“Here's a 2008 New Hampshire primary pop quiz question: Which Democratic presidential hopeful has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is leading the charge to ban cockfighting in his home state? Answer: Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.” -Portsmouth Herald

I would have said Kucinich, since he’s the vegan.

But come on! That makes the newsroom section? Oy veh. One, is it really wise to play up the fact that New Mexico currently allows cockfighting (thus allowing me to legitimately post this picture to the right? Go chickens!)? Two, can anyone say non-sequitur?

“Here’s a 2008 primary pop quiz question: Which Democratic presidential hopeful has received two purple hearts, and ate a ham sandwich last night?”

See what I’m saying?

The blog is not much better. There’s no way to search by month, or to search by post. And who let this blog entry headline slide: “Surprise! Bill Richardson has charisma”?

Folks, if it’s a surprise that your candidate has charisma, you might want to keep that to yourself.

The one affirming thing about this site is that there’s a donate button that appears on every page, so that folks can give money for the Richardson campaign to create a better site for when he officially becomes a candidate.

On a scale of 1 to 5 bizcochitos (again, New Mexico’s state cookie!), I give this site a 2. That may be harsh, as the site has a skeleton with all the right stuff. But other candidates have sites that are just in a different league, and Richardson should follow their lead. Compare this site to johnmccain.com or barackobama.com, and they just blow Richardson out of the water.

Richardson generated great buzz after his speech at the DNC meeting a few weeks ago, and he’s consistently doing well in polls on dailykos, and in the early caucus state of Nevada. But you wouldn’t know it from this website.

Stay tuned next week for another crack at the ’08 Republicans running for President, and a look at Kansas Senator Sam Brownback’s site.