Bill Richardson   (Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

Is Bill Richardson looking to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate? The Clinton campaign says it’s far too early to talk ticket, and Richardson insists he’s running to win. But in the second debate, with Hillary making an effort to be nice to all the Dems onstage, she notably lauded his people skills when asked how she would handle Iran. With “the kind of diplomacy that Bill Richardson did for my husband,” she said. (Richardson was his ambassador to the U.N.) Back in February, he conspicuously defended her by asking Barack Obama to apologize for David Geffen’s anti-Hillary remarks. And “their chemistry is excellent,” attests Earl Potter, one of the New Mexico governor’s big supporters back home. “Everyone is pushing Richardson,” says New York Democratic fund-raiser John Catsimatidis. “When you check off the list of what they need, a few things get satisfied. What percentage of the country is Hispanic these days?” Plus: “He could offset the cowboy, Fred Thompson.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
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