How to Meet a 2008 Long Shot

It's getting to be that time of the political season again, when long-shot presidential hopefuls try out those "meetups" to test their popularity and spread the word of their budding campaign. First up: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, often talked about as a likely vice presidential choice but who has White House aspirations of his own. We hear that a group of supporters called America For Richardson is hosting meetups February 6 to boost the hype around Richardson, who just nailed a cease-fire in Darfur.

"He's making our job easy for us," says Richardson booster Jeff Gulko, who worked for Richardson when he was a Clinton-era big shot, first as energy secretary and then as ambassador to the United Nations.

But if you want to see where your regional meetup is, don't first go to the http://www.meetup.com/ Meetup site. That's because most of the 25 Richardson groups already organized are using the free meetup service from Zanby.com. Gulko says he hopes Zanby works, but if it doesn't, he thinks most of the groups will switch over to the official Meetup site, which requires a small fee.