We could use a Bill in the White House. No, not that Bill, I’m talking about New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

When Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for president in Portland, I couldn’t help but think that hose were two adults up on that stage; that’s exactly what this country needs, especially after we’ve had a spoiled rich boy for president and a megalomaniacal madman for vice president for eight years.

Richardson running alongside future President Obama will be very beneficial for the United States.

Richardson and Obama actually represent all of the United States. Richardson jokes about being a Hispanic with a “white-sounding” name who looks like an American Indian. He’s also a Catholic who almost became a baseball player. If you mix that with Obama (whose dad is from Kenya and mom is from Kansas), a previous resident of Hawaii and Indonesia, we’d break the streak of two white guys winning the oval office.

I originally wanted Richardson to win the nomination, but his campaign never gained traction. His platform was that he is the most qualified candidate for president.

Besides holding an executive office as New Mexico’s governor, Richardson was the United States Secretary of Energy and ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration. He also spent 14 years in the House of Representatives.

If something were to happen to Obama during his first week on the job, Richardson would easily step in and continue Obama’s progressive policies.

With Richardson’s endorsement came backlash from Hillary Clinton’s sinking ship.

Clinton strategist and loyalist James Carville made an idiotic comment to The New York Times when he said, “Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing [made during Holy Week] is appropriate, if ironic.”

In the Bible, Judas was a genuine dirt bag who betrayed Jesus before his death; Bill Richardson is no Judas.

If we follow Carville’s reasoning and say that Richardson is the betrayer Judas, that must mean that by default, Carville considers Clinton to be Jesus. In the tone of Lloyd Bentsen from the 1988 vice presidential debate (where he slammed Dan Quayle for trying to compare himself to John Kennedy), Clinton is no Jesus Christ.

Richardson’s allegiance is to the good of the country and not to the Clintons’ ego. True democracy isn’t about owing favors to party elites.

As a diplomat, he was cordial to the Clintons in his endorsement of Obama: “The 1990s were a decade of peace and prosperity because of the competent and enlightened leadership of the Clinton administration, but it’s now time for a new generation of leadership to lead America forward.”

Assuming that Life Alert poster boy John McCain selects Willard Mitt Romney to be his vice presidential candidate, the race in November will be between two qualified adults and a cranky old man with a plastic clown. The debates will be spectacular.

Richardson’s experience as a diplomat led to numerous hostage negotiations, including face-to-face encounters with Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-Il.

It was a nice rhetoric when McCain said he’ll chase Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell, but Richardson has been to the gates of hell and back on several occasions.

Richardson complements Obama in the right ways. Richardson can hold the Southwest and win traditionally red states, he can mobilize and inspire the Hispanic constituency and his experience will enhance Obama’s credibility.

It is indeed time for a Bill in the White House in ’08; who knows — maybe he’ll succeed Obama in 2016.

[Reach columnist Ryan Morden at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]