Announced presidential candidate NM Governor Richardson is pro-gun rights. As governor of NM he has to be pro-gun or face the NM voters with a big strike against him.
"Announced presidential candidate NM Governor Richardson is pro-gun rights. As governor of NM he has to be pro-gun or face the NM voters with a big strike against him."
That's the nature of populist politics. In most times, a Democrat has to tack toward the right on various issues in order to be elected.
Unfortunately, I think that right now and for the next few years we're living in a period that will prove to be the exception. A radical leftist can and probably will be elected in 2008. That's not a reflection of a sea change in the underlying political philosophy of the public, just the result of GOP incompetence and the unwillingness of most conservatives to play pragmatic politics with regard to the two major parties. They'll stick with the GOP regardless of what they do.
Conservatives are truly the battered spouses of American politics.