At the Clean-Tech Investor Summit last week, New Mexico Governor and U.S. presidential hopeful Bill Richardson said he knows he's an underdog. He said the polls showed him as having only 3 percent of the vote--up from 1 percent of the vote when he announced his candidacy three days before, on January 21.

But Ira Ehrenpreis, a general partner at VC firm Technology Partners, had encouraging words for Mr. Richardson. "You were 1 percent and you’re 3 percent today," he said. "We VCs spend a lot of time looking at growth rates, and by my math, we’ve just heard from the next president of the United States.”

Conference-goers greeted Mr. Ehrenpreis’ comment with laughter and applause.

Mr. Richardson peppered his speech with jokes at his own expense, and bragged that he exchanged his SUV with a Ford Hybrid. "I was criticized, as an energy state governor, for driving a big SUV--and I admit it was big," he said, adding that he's lost some weight and can now fit into the hybrid.

To read more of his comments, check out the story: Richardson Speaks Clean.