WASHINGTON AND CHICAGO — When Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was naming Bill Richardson as his Commerce secretary, the president-elect noted the New Mexico governor's many achievements: his stints as a U.S. congressman, United Nations ambassador and Energy secretary.
Then Obama brought up the handshakes. Richardson often brags that he is in the Guinness World Records for the time he shook 13,392 hands in an eight-hour period.
"All of this reflects a determination to reach out and understand where people are coming from -- what they hope for, and what he can do to help," Obama said.
But it also reflects Richardson's ambitions as a politician. Obama's appointment of Richardson comes after his announcement this week that he had chosen Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of State, a job that some Latino activists had hoped would go to Richardson.
In naming the Democratic governor to the Commerce post, Obama emphasized the importance of the job in this economic climate and described it in international terms, which raised questions about whether Richardson's larger-than-life character would lead to tension among the president-elect's team of economic advisors and other Cabinet picks.
Richardson said he considered the Commerce Department the "nerve center" in the effort to rejuvenate the economy.
"Boosting commerce between states and nations is not just a path to solvency and growth, it's the only path," Richardson said. "We will revitalize our nation's historic strength in manufacturing, while restoring our position of respect in the world."
William Daley, who served in President Clinton's Cabinet with Richardson, acknowledged that the governor had a big personality. But Daley, a former Commerce secretary, said Richardson wasn't prone to conflict or drama.
"He's not always politically correct," Daley said. "But he gets away with it because he's not mean-spirited about it."
Like Obama, Richardson has been informed by a childhood spent largely outside the U.S. He grew up in Mexico City in the 1950s, the son of an American bank manager, before going to private school in Massachusetts.
Richardson represented northern New Mexico in Congress for 15 years, making several international missions as a special envoy. He is credited with winning the release of hostages, U.S. service members and prisoners in North Korea, Iraq and Cuba.
