Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Richardson Gets It Wrong

On NBC's "Meet The Press," Presidential wannabe Bill Richardson stated that the border fence had not worked anywhere along the border:

MR. RUSSERT: The wall hasn’t worked?

GOV. RICHARDSON: No, it hasn’t worked.

MR. RUSSERT: Anywhere along the border, the fence hasn’t worked.

GOV. RICHARDSON: It hasn’t worked. What has worked is more border patrols. What has worked is some National Guardsmen. What has worked is some technology. It’s made the program better. But, Tim, we got to talk to Mexico, our friend, get them to do more. . . [The complete transcript is available here.]
Richardson needs to get his facts right. In April 2006, The Assistant Chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, Jim Henry, told NPR that apprehensions in the San Diego sector were reduced 95 percent, from 100,000 a year to 5,000 a year, after the single strand of cable marking the border was replaced by double -- and in some places, triple -- fencing.

Some say Richardson's statement is more than getting the facts wrong. Watch this video of Richardson saying the fence hasn't worked:



Richardson isn't going to convince many people to support him if he continues to make such gaffes on national television broadcasts.

Thanks to Lonewacko for the tip.

3 comments:

IC said...

Your blog's great, man. I just wish we weren't competitors!

California Yankee said...

IC, Thanks for the kind words. I don't think of fellow bloggers as competitors. I think blogs have more of a symbiotic relationship.

Centrist Dude said...

I have to admit that I've been very disappointed in Bill Richardson. I was hoping that he could be a credible candidate, but he's shown on several occasions (including the 1st debate) that he's not.