Granted, the statement is a little strange, but to “wince” at the mention? So is that.

God’s will is for Iowa to have the first-in-the-nation caucus, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson told a crowd here today.

“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord should be the first caucus and primary,” Richardson, New Mexico’s governor said at the Northwest Iowa Labor Council Picnic. “And I want you to know who was the first candidate to sign a pledge not to campaign anywhere if they got ahead of Iowa. It was Bill Richardson.”…

Sioux City resident Jan Hodge agreed that Richardson’s statement was odd.

“It’s the kind of thing that would make me wince if, for instance, George Bush said it,” Hodge said. “Richardson has the saving grace of not taking himself too seriously. It was one of those off the cuff remarks that can’t be taken as seriously as the punsters will make it.”

Not taking himself to seriously? The man’s running for President of the United States, is a sitting governor, and says he believes God wants the first primary in Iowa. That’s not taking himself seriously? No, the difference here is that Richardson isn’t a Republican. Had Bush, Thompson, Giuliani, et all, said it, it’d be a source of outrage on the left.