Essential Estrogen

Speaking before roughly 500 union members and supporters in Cedar Rapids today, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said it is past time for there to be "an American president who will finally be on the side of the middle class."

"The [Bush] administration has failed to protect the engine of our economy -- the middle class," he said during the 30-minute speech. "Productivity is up, yet real wages are down. American workers are holding up their end of the deal, but their government is not."

In discussing the current state of the United State's fiscal health, Richardson chided Bush for "acting like a spoiled teenager who crashes the family car and then hopes no one will notice."

Despite the situation being dire, there is still time to act, he said.

"You know we face great challenges, but we are the greatest nation in the history of the world, and our government needs to start acting like it" he said. "I'm optimistic about our nation and our abilities. We need to get back to big American dreams. We need to get back to the forward-looking nation that searched out new frontiers."

Cedar Rapids resident Shari Martinez says she's optimistic too, but concerned that Richardson's is being overly simplistic in some of his answers.

"I think what he says is all good, but also pretty aggressive," she said following the governor's comments today. "A lot of what he says is with an underlying belief that he will have a Democratically-controlled Congress. What if he doesn't? I understand that no politician wants to stand up and qualify statements by saying 'If this happens, then I'll do this.' Still, there needs to be more clarity."

Citing the need for both fiscal responsibility and investment in education, Richardson said in order to move forward we must "repair the damage of the past."

"We need to move aggressively to create high-quality jobs and expand American opportunity," he said.

High-quality jobs, he says, will be created once companies have incentives to create them. Such incentives, according to the Richardson plan, would include rebates and tax credits. Businesses would be encouraged to create new jobs in rural or low-income areas or to employ disadvantaged high school and college students.

The fact that Richardson's economic speech was given at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 405 Hall was not by accident. He and Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska are the only candidates in the Democratic field for president who will not appear this Saturday at the Hawkeye Labor Council's "Workers for a Better Iowa" event, also in Cedar Rapids. His speech, then, was written to appeal to the union members in the audience.

"Let me say that I will be a friend to working Americans -- to unions -- until the day I die," he said. "This is because you made me. As president, and I've said this before, my secretary of labor will be a union member."