Jumbo for President?

Published Dec 08 2006, 03:10 PM by Adam Reilly

Calm down over there in Meffah -- despite what FOX News would have you believe, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson did not declare his candidacy for President in an interview with the network yesterday. I checked the clip, and he actually said, approximately, "...blah blah blah blah I'm running blah blah blah...." FOX plucked out the two words and tried to turn it into a big scoop. (Not that it's exactly a big scoop, anyway.)

Richardson, of course, is a graduate of Tufts undergrad and the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Richardson is expected to make a decision next month; the excitement can be felt, I'm sure, all the way from Powderhouse Circle to Hillside.

Meanwhile, Harvard's candidates are dropping out faster than first-year law students: Bill Frist (Harvard Medical School), Russ Feingold (Harvard Law), and Mark Warner (Harvard Law) have all declared themselves non-candidates. Al Gore, who got his BA from Harvard, has repeatedly said he's not running, but some think he still might.

Which left all the Crimson's hopes riding on Business & Law grad Mitt Romney -- until Barak Obama (Harvard Law) started testing the waters.

Yale, which granted diplomas to the winners of the last five elections (Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, and Bush), has three hopefuls in the mix: the Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and George Pataki.

Assuming he runs, Richardson will try to be the first Democratic nominee without a degree from Harvard or Yale since Walter Mondale. The last Republican was Bob Dole. You can see why neither party has gone back to that strategy. (Although, Michael Dukakis didn't exactly win one for Harvard Law in '88, either.)

Harvard has been more successful in its in-state rivalry with Boston College over the governor's chair. Romney will be succeeded by another two-diploma Crimson, Deval Patrick (undergrad and Law) -- who beat Harvard alum Kerry Healey after trouncing Harvard alum Chris Gabrieli and BC Law grad Tom Reilly. Harvard also educated Bill Weld and Dukakis; Paul Cellucci and Ed King were Eagles. (Acting Governor Jane Swift went to Trinity.)

[David S. Bernstein]