Bill Richardson as the "electable" candidate?

DLC types love to tell Dems that they should play for middle-of-the-road independents instead of taking firm progressive stances. Well, according to David Weigel, it looks like those independents love them some Bill Richardson:

That's been going on for a while. Pollster.com, which tracks the primaries and averages all the surveys, has noticed Mr Richardson gaining everywhere. In Iowa he's gone from negligible numbers to the low teens, near Mr Obama. In New Hampshire he's moving past Mr Edwards into third place.

But the internal numbers in that Smith-featured poll are fascinating: Mr Richardson's making the biggest gains with independents. In South Carolina only 1% of Democrats support Mr Richardson, but 9% of independents do. In New Hampshire it's 6% of Democrats and, again, 9% of independents. The Iowa poll's the real blockbuster: Mr Richardson has an outright lead with 25% of the independent vote. That's what's pushing him into the first tier.

The Iowa and New Hampshire numbers matter; those are both states where independents can show up to the caucus or primary and signal their intention to vote Democratic. When I reported from New Hampshire in June, Ray Buckley, the state's Democratic chairman, crowed that two-thirds of independents are planning to vote in his party's primary. Nearly half (44%) of New Hampshire voters are registered independent. If Mr Buckley is right, there'll be as many independents voting in Mr Richardson's race as there will be Democrats.

Personally, I think that the reason Richardson is climbing with independents is that people are tired... Richardson's most attractive quality is that he exudes non-partisan compentence. However, Weigel offers up another possibility:

Mr Richardson has the most extreme Iraq pullout plan in the race—all troops out of the country, no permanent bases. A lot of those non-Democrats and ex-Republicans who ditched Bush in 2006 like the sound of that.

First impressions of the Democratic debate

Any of you watch the debate? Post your thoughts in the comments.

This was the first one I've seen, and it was eye opening.

The YouTube format was actually pretty cool. Pretty much anything other than YouTube that uses the word "YouTube," including the friggin iPhone, seems like a gimmick, but user-video questions had some advantages.

Joe Biden is trying very hard to come off as the hard-eyed realist, but, for me at least, it's not working. I still think he's a little bit of a clown

Hillary kicks ass. She's doing a great job. I don't want to vote for her, but I have to acknowledge that her performance--in the past few weeks up through tonight's debate--has been very good. She sounds like a hawk, and I think she is a hawk, and I'd really prefer that somebody else be president. But right now it seems like she'll be president.

Bill Richardson lacks the polish I would hope he had, but based on limited information, he's still my pick for the one who would make the best president. I like his answers. I like that he seems fundamentally honest in his answers, but maybe that's why he doesn't seem so polished.

Ah, Dennis Kucinich. I love that little guy. He he is loudly and articulately spouting pure sanity from the podium, mixed in with some terrible, terrible gimmickry. I guess he feels like the gimmicks are necessary to break out of his fringe-candidate status. But it seems to me it's exactly those gimmicks that are hurting him. I mean seriously, text "peace" to 73223? What is that supposed to....

... whoops, sorry to trail off. I was busy texting.

John Edwards kicks ass, but he just doesn't have a chance, I think.

Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel... I like both these guys, but,... meh... they aren't adding anything to the debate.

Obama... I don't know what to say. i still think he's all style and no substance. I'm willing to see the substance if it comes, but, where is it?

Our next President of the United States

I can't find it in print, but yesterday I think I heard Bill Richardson say that instead of having a seperate health-care system for veterans, he'd give veterans a "Hero Card" that woud allow them to get premium health care from any provider they wanted.

Seriously, this guy is going to be president.

I give you the next president of the United States

There's a lot I don't know yet about Bill Richardson, but what I do know I like. So far, he's the only candidate in the entire field who I think would almost certainly make a very good president.

This ad campaign hasn't changed my mind about that: