Cross Posted on Daily Kos

Governor Bill Richardson has called for the removal of all of our troops from Iraq in six to eight months; and in no case more than a year.  The other candidates in the race for president have called this irresponsible and simply not logistically possible.

Given that none of the Senators or Congressman running have prior military logistical experience, one must assume they consulted logistics experts for their conclusions.  Yet, they never identify these so-called experts.

Now appears US Army (Ret.) LTC Lon Cross, who has drawn upon his knowledge as a retired field-grade infantry and logistics officer, and presented the facts that are relevant to an evaluation of what is logistically feasible regarding the redeployment of US Forces from Iraq.Lon Cross is a Research Fellow at LMI (formerly known as the Logistics Management Institute) where he specializes in Logistics and Supply Chain Risk Management and Process Improvement. Currently, all of his clients reside within the Department of Defense.

Yesterday, I was privileged to serve as the surrogate speaker on behalf of Governor Bill Richardson at Straw Poll 2008, an event hosted by the San Mateo Democratic Party.  It was a wonderful fundraising event to help fund the 2008 Election effort in San Mateo.  Over 1500 tickets were sold, and approximately 1000-1200 people attended.  

Dennis Kucinich led the speakers, with a fiery speech that certainly rallied his supporters.  This was billed as a major event for Rep. Kucinich, and the campaign had invested thousands in this event.  Similar organizational efforts were made by the Edwards and Obama campaigns.  State Senator Jackie Speier spoke on behalf of Senator Clinton, Lynne Gravel Mosier gave a great speech on behalf of her father, State Senator Leland Yee talked very emotionally about his experiences growing up and how that related to his support for John Edwards.  Unfortunately, I had to follow our former State Treasure and gubernatorial candidate, Steve Westly, who is the California Co-Chair for the Obama Campaign.  Steve is a great guy, and a wonderful speaker.

By the time I got on stage at 3:30, most of the people had voted.  As this was a fundraising effort, many people came, voted, and left; and they had been well mobilized by the Kucinich, Edwards and Obama campaigns.  I was not alone, as the Richardson supporters were there to show their support for the Governor.  Their attendance was truly organic, there was no effort made to rally votes for this event; with the campaign's primary focus on the early states.  Below the fold is the text of my prepared remarks.

By way of full disclosure, I am a supporter of Bill Richardson. In my quest to find who I believed could best represent both the Democratic Party, and America, I took a hard look at each of the candidates, met 6 of them personally, reviewed their backgrounds and records of accomplishment, and their stand on the issues. I also compared them one to another. Below you will find why I picked Bill Richardson over Senator Barack Obama. It is not the only reason, but it is the one place where I could compare "apples to apples", with Bill Richardson prevailing. Read for yourself and you make the call:

Paul Salopek, a respected National Geographic journalist had mistakenly crossed through Chad to the Sudan to cover the Darfur story. Salopek was detained in Darfur, Sudan by Sudanese government officials on August 6, 2006, along with his Chadian interpreter and driver, while on a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine. When Salopek failed to show at a long-scheduled appointment on August 17, National Graphic became concerned. His last contact with his wife had been on August 5. On August 26, 2006 Salopek was charged with espionage, passing information illegally, writing "false news," and entering Sudan without a visa, in a Sudanese court in al-Fashir, North Darfur.

Bill Richardson gives the best quote of the day, campaiging in Iowa supposedly commenting on the New England Patriots's "spying" incident.

"The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant, and our U.S. Senate is letting it continue. You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush."

I am here in L.A., and I just came from a fundraiser for Jim Webb, running against George Allen in VA.  This guy is pretty amazing, and has the military and street creds that not even Rove can contest----War hero, Secretary of the Navy under Reagan.

Yet, as I listened to his plan to campaign in Virginia against the 20 million dollar campaign of his opponent, my only thoughts were "if this guy loses, it is Leiberman's fault."  If we lose this shot at taking back the Senate, taking back the House, it is all the fault of Joe Leiberman.

All the dollars, all the energy, all the resources to fight Joe Leiberman should be going elsewhere - whether it is Webb in Virginia, or Tester, or even Jack Carter in Nevada.