Hola!

We caught New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson pressing the flesh (but not the bread) at Consuelos Taqueria in Manchester this morning where he took questions from about 20 people for 45 minutes.

Most of the (pretty sophisticated) questions centered on foreign policy (Crib Note: W is a war monger who has screwed the U.S. royally, how would you rebuild our country's alliances?) on health care and on energy.

The Gov even managed to work in rhetoric about his recent fundraising "successes" and about how he has moved up and out of the "margin of error" in the polls.

Hi-yi! Hi-yi! Hi-yi!

Richardson does have a dedicated following in New Hampshire. In fact, in the last month we have talked to two savvy Democrat activists who both picked Richardson to "break out" in the first-in-the-nation Primary.

Although we're not activists, savvy or Democrats, we remain unconvinced of Richardson's long term viability.

The Governor clearly has a story to tell and some experience in diplomacy. But his tenure at the Department of Energy was a disaster (yes, we're citing a Republican hit piece but the quotes in it are accurate).

So New Hampshire is supposed to elevate a man who had trouble running 1 Executive Branch Agency to a position where he would control the entire Executive Branch?

That doesn't sound right.

We're just saying.