First, have I mentioned that I hate blogging. I think some time ago I compared the responsibility of having a blog to that of having a dog in the city: you have to walk it twice-a-day just so it won't dump in your living room. Well, I live in the country now so the anlalogy doesn't really work as well anymore since all I have to do now is open the door to walk the dogs. The blog, however, still needs daily care. And I've found that when I neglect it for too long, it takes Karmic craps that leave me feeling more guilty then the time I left my dog in the apartment for 18 hours and more embarrassed then when I had to use a small garbage bag to pick his monster dookie off the street and carry it down the block to the nearest garbage can. Well, if bones are to dogs as scandals are to blogs, I hope to make it up NewMexicoMatters beginning today.
OK, back to business. BETWEEN WORLDS The Making of An American Life, by Bill Richardson hit bookshelves last week and gave the Governor an excuse to get out of the Land of Entrapment for a few days of book touring. The book, which I almost bought twice so far, seems interesting enough, at least pages 318 to 320, which focused on Richardson's tenure as the Chairman of the DNC Convention last summer in Boston and how Amanda Cooper had to fight the Kerry folks to ensure the Governor got his share of seats on the floor and a prime realeestate skybox.
Between Worlds, The Making of An American Life, by Bill Richardson is currently ranked 1,466 on Amazon's list of best sellers, which according to Rampant TechPress, means that Amazon is selling approximately 40-75 copies a week...or last week alone.?However, excerpts, emphasize say that there is no proven correlation between books sales and votes.
More Later.
An interesting Amazon review:
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
An Interesting "Promo-Ad" Biography by a Paid Writer, November 10, 2005
Reviewer: Kent Ponder (Albuquerque., NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Though the cover shows only Richardson's name as author, the book was actually written by Michael Ruby, as one learns inside. This quite-interesting PR biography was written more as a political-promo piece than as a balanced history, but it contains lots of practical advice and interesting personal information
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Ch. 1 takes us from birth through early schooling, highlighting Bill's proud Mexican heritage in a family of achievement.
Ch. 2 reviews youthful experiences up to entry into Tufts University.
Ch. 3 presents his Tufts academic experiences, to graduation.
Ch. 4 outlines Bill's Wash. DC job prepping legislative summaries.
Ch. 5 describes his work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and on to becoming a NM congressman.
Ch. 6: Thoughts and comments on "thinking big."
There are fascinating photos of Bill playing baseball, posing with George McGovern, with Fidel Castro, with Bill Clinton (5 photos), with Slobodan Milossevic, and so on -- all part of "thinking big."
Ch. 18 presents Bill's valid work during the Calif. energy crisis.
Ch. 21 describes his respected work with New Mexico children's education.
Ch. 22: Here we approach the crux of things. He was asked, "Do you want to be president?" His answer: "Maybe someday."
Ch. 24 recaps his negotiated release, from Saddam Hussein, of William Burloon and David Daliberti -- a big news story at the time.
Currently, another big story not covered in the book, as reported in an Espanola NM newspaper and in Albuquerque's Crosswinds Weekly, concerns Bill's abuse of NM state airplanes, documenting 113 trips in two years, 61 of which his office has not attempted to explain. This is probably because the trips were for horse racing, football, and flights as short as ten minutes, to places more easily reached by car. In fact his staff does drive his Lincoln Navigator to these places so he'll have it when he lands. This misuse of state aircraft is understandably a current New Mexico scandal for this governor who apparently wants to be president.
In my view, such misuse of public funds is unfortunate, because apart from this scandal Richardson's track record otherwise displays lots of ability in many respects, as is engagingly presented in this informative biography.
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Posted by: ReviewRepeater | Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 09:54 PM