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I admit that photo of him isn't great, but in watching moving video of Bill Richardson I think he's reasonably attractive and certainly not ugly (watch the video on his home page; do you find him ugly in that)?
1. Richardson is a Clinton-democrat.
2. He has extensive executive experience. In addition to being governor he has held many executive branch positions including Secretary of Energy under Clinton. Also served in Congress for something like 8 terms so have legislative experience. Has good foreign relations experience as well having served as Ambassador to the United Nations. Frankly, he may be the most qualified candidate running for the office from either party.
3. He is pro-choice.
4. He is pro death penalty.
5. On gay issues he has a questionable past having voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, but back in 1996 almost everybody voted for it and Clinton signed it. Since then he has come out pretty solidly on the side of gay rights (including expanded rights protections in NM while governor).
6. He opposes the war and supports a prompt pull out from Iraq.
7. He supported the "comprehensive" immigration plan that recently died in Congress, I believe. If not explicitly that bill he support simultaneously creating a path to citizenship for illegals already here and strong border security to keep out new illegal immigrants. Unlike many Democrats in Congress (and the president) he seems to actually want the border controls implemented though not a fence.
Those are the issues I can think of where I have a sense of his position. Mostly from watching an interview of him a few weeks ago. I can't say that I have a ton of exposure but he has been very popular in New Mexico where they presumably know him best and seems to have the most legitimate cross aisle admiration (unlike fake admiration where a R or D expresses a liking of a candidate knowing that the recipient could never win a nomination).
So with him it is more that I haven't heard anything yet that disqualified him in my eyes than that I have seen enough to be certain I support him.
I actually know more about him than Obama, and consider him certainly more qualified. But I find myself supporting Obama because of his charisma as well as a desire to see a clean cut with history in the White House.
How nice it would be to have a president with no sordid connections to past administrations where top positions have a chance of going to relatively new people with new ways of looking at things. As much as I disagreed with many of their policies I think these were among the good things about the Clinton and Carter administrations. Republican presidents, as you might expect from the "conservative" label, tend to have too much yearning for the comfort of past power and that is one reason I have little interest in Hilary Clinton this time around.
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