“The Democrats are just handing this election to the Republicans.” Dennis Richmond tells columnist Bill Mann. “Rev. Jeremiah Wright wounded him [Obama] greatly. I’m terrified of a McCain-Clinton campaign. Both are consummate politiciann.”

Richmond told Mann he didn’t like ABC anchor Charlie Gibson’s handling of last week’s Democratic debate: “He’s a field reporter, not an anchor. He only got the ABC anchor job when that guy [Bob Woodruff] was shot in the head.”

Richmond, who is retiring next months after 40 years behind the Channel 2 anchor desk, said he has tried to keep his personal opinions off the air. But he adds, “The whole process is starting to disgust me … No one is talking about the issues.”

Mann notes that Richmond’s successor, Frank Somerville, has paid his dues over the years. Mann writes, “When he was working in the low-paying news department up at Channel 50 in Santa Rosa, Berkeley High grad Somerville once told me, he and his wife lived in a camper on his sister-in-law’s lawn in Santa Rosa.”