Matt writes, "I also got a chance to talk to Richardson a bit before the speech and, of course, the trick with something like that is that almost all even moderately successful politicians are pretty charismatic, but nonetheless he seemed very impressive."
You know, I'm often struck by how untrue that is. Meet Gray Davis, for instance, and you're unlikely to be blown away. Gary Hart is brilliant, but not very charismatic. And the average Congresscritter can be downright unimpressive. This is, in part, because safe districts tend to get decided on party nominations, and who gets a party's nomination has a lot more to do with workhorse, record, and personal favors than it does with magnetism. But I always find uncharismatic politicians surprising nevertheless.
