Joe Biden's push for a loose federation in Iraq has won him a new supporter, from right out of Bill Richardson's column. South Carolina state Rep. Fletcher Smith, who had been co-chairing Richardson's campaign in the state since July, has defected over to supporting Biden.

Smith said that Biden's plan is the only workable one, and better than Richardson's proposed total pull-out. "To me it's the only way this problem is going to be resolved," Smith told CNN. "Right now we have a quicksand of a civil war, and I don't believe we can just pull out precipitously in a six month period of time without jeopardizing our interests in the region. We don't need another evacuation that we had in Vietnam."