GQ's Lisa DePaulo gets to the bottom of Governor Bill Richardson's decision to endorse Barack Obama. Turns out it was a mancrush. "It was an accumulation of talks that I had with him," Richardson says, and continues ...

"When he was calling me to urge me to endorse him. It was a two-month period. It was almost every third day he'd call. Himself, on the phone. And we got to know each other, even though I'd started to get to know him during the campaign and debates. We seemed, in the debates, to connect with each other—probably because we in many cases sat next to each other. We would, you know, trade glances. Like, if some other candidate was making an outrageous statement. I like to point out once that I was asked a question in one debate, and I wasn't listening, and I turned to Obama, and he went like that [cups hand to mouth], and he said [in a whisper], 'Katrina. Katrina.'"

Obama was, apparently, able to endure poking, pinching, and the general touching that's the Richardson signature. Oh, and a note on that songwriter beard—his wife hates it, as do constituents. "Most people don't like it," Richardson says. "I mean, we get e-mails."