The Politicker

Richardson Adviser: He Won't Endorse, I'm With Hillary

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New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will hold a press conference this afternoon at 1 p.m. Mountain Time to officially announce his departure from the Democratic presidential race—but he won't be endorsing another Democratic candidate at this time.

"He wants to make a considered choice," said Martha Burk, his senior adviser for women's issues.

Burk, a syndicated columnist and an editor at Ms. magazine, has made an endorsement, however. She said that "I expect I'll be going to work for Hillary Clinton. She is by far, by far, the most qualified candidate viable in the race right now."

Why not John Edwards or Barack Obama? "I would guess if you ask particularly Obama, but Edwards as well, to talk about the nuances of social security or whether we need a caregiver credit or we need paid leave. i doubt they'd have the depth," she said.

"I was so turned off by what Mr. Edwards said after the emotional moment that Mrs. Clinton had: What few female voters he had would have left him at that point. Making cracks about how being commander in chief is tough?" she said. "That was so sexist. Did he ever tear up? I imagine that he has. He's had some very emotional things happen in his life, not least when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought it was a big disservice to Mrs. Clinton when he did it."

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perplexedinnyc (not verified) says:

It is fascinating that Ms. Burk questions whether Edwards or Obama have the "depth" to address the "nuances of Social Security", etc., and how she opines that Hillary in fact has this depth. Maybe...But I saw no evidence of this depth at a previous debate, when Hillary gave her views on how to deal with Social Security.

Hillary's solution to the Social Security issue was merely to refer - really defer - the matter to some bipartisan panel, a situation which ended up hurting middle-income wage earners in the past-including my mom, a NYC resident who worked all her life. At least Edwards and Obama have specific proposals to raise the cap, so that folks with gross incomes over $200-g would contribute an equitable percent of their income into Social Security compared with folks of lower incomes.

But just deferring to a panel? Come on Ms. Burk; come on Hillary. Where is the depth? Where is the nuance?

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