Richardson in Iowa

Governor Bill Richard’s presidential campaign office in Dubuque, Iowa, is next door to Sen. Joe Biden’s presidential campaign office. The meaning of the location probably has everything to do with availability of downtown storefronts. Even so, Richardson’s twenty-something Dubuque staffers can look next door and take solace in Biden being even lower in the Iowa polls than Richardson.
The literature includes a baseball card. The only direct baseball reference is a photo of Richardson, ball glove on his left hand and baseball in the right hand, that may have been taken during his visit to the Field of Dreams. Corn fields are in the background. Under the “positions played” section of the “Career Highlights” listed on the back of the card, there is no mention of Richardson’s baseball career, including no mention of his decades-long false claim to have been drafted by a major league team.
Both the baseball card and a letter-size sheet tout Richardson maintaining a balanced budget, something required by the New Mexico constitution. The sheet claims that as governor, “he cut $230 million in bureaucratic waste.”
In an October 18 speech in Des Moines, Richardson called for a new Marshall Plan to fight hunger and poverty in the developing world. The speech got about 12 inches in the October 19 Dubuque Telegraph Herald. The story, from the Associated Press, ran on page 16C, about six inches from the top.
Apparently the AP reporter didn't quire accept the premise of Richardson's proposal. The story said Richardson was "arguing" that "hunger and overpopulation are the greatest looming threat to the establishment of a stable world."
Skepticism—but on the editorial pages—may be appropriate. All the 1970s dire predictions of overpopulation guru Paul Erlich have proven incorrect.