Why is Bill Richardson Changing His Tune[s]?

When I first met him [he had dated my wife while they were both at Tufts] in the early eighties, I immediately became a fan of then-Congressman Bill Richardson.

I found Bill to be a quintessential regular guy with no pretensions, proud of his Hispanic heritage [his mother lived in Mexico City at the time] and frank about his aspirations to higher office [he told me at my house in a private conversation that he wanted to be elected Senator from New Mexico]. Later, when I worked for the Oil Daily, Bill was generous with his time as a source [he was on the House Energy Cte] and even inserted one of my articles in The Congressional Record.

But Domenici and Bingaman were solidly ensconced and Bill went on to become Sec'y of Energy and US Ambassador to the UN. After the Clintons left the WH, Bill got himself elected governor to New Mex and has been a breath of fresh air---until he decided to put his hat in the ring and run for President this year.

Bill had told me in the eighties that he considered the threat to the American way of life from massive invasion by illegal aliens, almost entirely from Mexico, as the chief national security threat to the USA in the coming decades. This surprised me, since at the time the US was still in a balance of mutually assured destruction with the USSR. But Bill was adamant in his estimation of the downside of illegal immigration.

As governor of NM, he demonstrated this by calling up the National Guard to protect the state's border with Mexico. I realized that what he had said two decades ago was still important to him, and that the problem of illegals was one of his main priorities.

But then, he announced his candidacy for POTUS, and the flipping and flopping began.

Suddenly, Bill was against strict border enforcement and strong penalties for illegals and those hiring them. [Can you imagine what the MSM would do to a Republican who switched from McCainism to strict enforcement?]

And Richardson, heretofore a paragon of fair play and diplomatic niceties suddenly has no problem with the Nevada Democrats dropping FoxNEWS as moderator when serial chronic panderer John Edwards had responded to the ultra-left fringe by refusing to participate.

Funny what running for President does to a Democrat.

Does Richardson believe that he must deconstruct himself to win in the primaries?