Endorsement -- and Quinnipiac poll

In his column today Bill Clark of the Columbia Daily Tribune endorsed Bill Richardson for president. Bill Clark offers a nice summery of Bill Richardson's impressive resume. I would recommend the reading. To quote just a bit, Clark writes:

Bill Richardson has a lengthy record of success on the international stage; he has 15 years of legislative experience in Washington; and he has been a successful governor who won re-election by 68 percent of the vote this year.

It is nice to have an endorsement so early. (Thanks to Missouri for Richardson, Florida for Richardson, and Washington for Richardson for being so swift.)

On another note, Quinnipiac released their "thermometer poll" of various politicians (many possible presidential candidates). For this poll, respondents gave the politicians a warmth rating between 0-100. They also track the percentage of respondents who didn't know enough to give a rating. There are a few interesting points to make with this poll. First, while Richardson only came it tenth among all of the possibilities,within the top ten, he had the highest percentage of respondents who didn't know enough about him. I am confident that as people know about him, the warmth will only rise. Second, while he rates better from Democrats than Republicans, he still gets decent ratings from Republicans and better than decent ratings from Independents.