From Reuters:
In the heartland of America he is just Gov. Bill Richardson. But in big Hispanic states like California the Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful tells voters he is also a Lopez. ‘California has a lot of Hispanic voters and they don’t know I’m Hispanic,’ said Richardson, governor of New Mexico and son of a Mexican woman named Lopez.
His decision to officially launch his bid for the White House on Monday in the state with the largest Hispanic population was more than symbolic. It was strategic. ‘I am saying “It’s Bill Richardson Lopez and I am one of you and I would like you to consider me, not because I am Hispanic but because I have the best program for the country”,’ he told Reuters in an interview late on Monday.
Excuse me, Bill, but do you want your Hispanicity noticed, or not? If you want your listeners to vote for you “not because I am Hispanic,” then what the heck is “I am one of you” doing in the same sentence?
(N.B. Though to give the guy some credit for restraint, Bill is actually understating his Hispanitude. Not only were both his mother’s parents Mexican, but one of his father’s was too.)