BuzzFlash Reviews
Bill Richardson's "Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life" (Paperback)
Bill Richardson
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Clearly, Richardson emerged in the primaries as the most blunt, straightforward, and disarmingly frank candidate. This book was written shortly before he began his run for president, and the book deviates from being just a standard political "positioning" tome. It's got Richardson's refreshing personality all over it.
Hopefully, there will be a place for him in an Obama administration. The guy is a remarkable negotiator and entertaining to boot.
But, at this price, our BuzzFlash supply is limited.
From Publishers Weekly:
A charismatic politician with a standout résumé, in 2008 Governor Richardson may become the first Hispanic-American on a presidential ticket—at least if he has anything to say about it. In this campaign pamphlet, er, autobiography, Richardson lays out the highlights of his professional career, documenting how, after gaining a taste for politics in college and finaglinghis way into the international affairs program at the Fletcher School, he worked his way up from Capitol Hill staffer to U.S. congressman, United Nations ambassador, head of the Department of Energy and now governor of New Mexico. Along the way, he developed a knack for negotiating the release of prisoners from some of the world's most notorious dictators, among them Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro, work that led him to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times. Richardson prefaces his account of these triumphs with a short chapter on his life in Mexico City, where he lived with his father, a prominent American businessman, and his mother, a Mexican secretary, until he was 12, but the focus of this book is his life in America. Though the autobiography is clearly designed as part of Richardson's long-term campaign for re-election in New Mexico and for national consideration by the DNC, it manages to provide a sense of his most famous characteristics: his blunt, disarming humor; his glad-handing chumminess; and his dogged ambition. "Some politicians say they feel uncomfortable talking about power, as if it's the nasty relation a family wants to keep hidden from public view," he writes. Richardson isn't one of those politicians, and it's his straight talk about how he got the power he has, and how he likes to flex it, that saves this book from being one long commercial.
From an online reviewer:
This book is warm and generous, just like its author. He's a guy just like the rest of us with fears, joys, sorrows, disappointments, peeves, and some great accomplishments. I loved sharing his life with him, and thank him for being so open.
From a 2007 USA Today Article:
Hoping to make himself stand out from the Democratic presidential crowd, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is using humor in his first two TV commercials to both introduce himself to voters and highlight his resumé.
Called Job Interview and Tell Me, the spots are due to begin airing in Iowa on Thursday, Richardson's campaign says. Both can be viewed here.
Job Interview shows a rather dubious-looking Richardson listening to a "boss" rattle off the governor's past jobs:
"Fourteen years in Congress, U.N. ambassador, secretary of Energy, governor of New Mexico, negotiated with dictators in Iraq, North Korea, Cuba, Zaire, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, Kenya. Got a cease fire in Darfur. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times.
"So, what makes you think you can be president?"
Tell Me flips things around. The actor/"boss" says "tell me what you did as governor of New Mexico," and Richardson rattles off a list -- to which the boss replies, "you might be a little over qualified."
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