Kyle Bell

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is set to endorse Barack Obama today. The former presidential candidate and only Hispanic governor said that Obama is a “once-in-a- lifetime leader” and will unite the country. Richardson had remained neutral, but said, “I know full well Sen. Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.”

Richardson backed Obama despite his ties to Clinton and her husband, the former president. He served as ambassador to the U.N. and as secretary of the Energy Department during the Clinton administration. Last month, Richardson and former President Clinton watched the Super Bowl together at the governor’s residence in Santa Fe.

Richardson was a roving diplomatic troubleshooter when he was a congressman from New Mexico, negotiating the release of U.S. hostages in several countries and meeting with a rogue’s gallery of U.S. adversaries, including Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander in chief when our nation’s security is on the line. He showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has show it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership internationally,” Richardson said.