MY DEBATE ANALYSIS

My debate analysis for The New Mexican, focused on Gov. Richardson's performance is HERE.

In the piece I contend that Richardson missed an opportunity to stand out by not reacting to the weird guy who called his automatic weapon his "baby" -- an opportunity not missed by Joe Biden, who basically called the guy a wack job.

I've already received one e-mail from a strong gun-rights defender. It was a reasonable letter. I suspect there will be more -- and probably some won't be as reasonable.

Like I told the guy who wrote me, I wasn't taking sides on the gun issue. I'm not even a big gun-control advocate. I just think the guy in the video was kinda kooky and it would have been a good move to call a kook a kook -- especially someone with a good gun-rights record like Gov. Richardson. Kind of a "Sister Souljah moment" for firearms extremists.

XXXXXX

Meanwhile, the Richardson campaign has declared victory in the debate, just as they did in all the others. They do point out he fact that a focus group of 24 undecided voters in Nevada declared him as "one of the winners." (Actually he tied with Hillary Clinton for the most votes from this group.)

Richardson's latest "job interview" ad that was shown during Monday's debate can be found HERE