Chris Dodd

Chris Dodd says that he's being vetted by the Obama campaign, supposedly a sign that he's progressed to a more serious level of vice presidential consideration. But is that really what's going on?

Dodd endorsed Obama soon after ending his own presidential bid in January and served as a loyal and aggressive surrogate during Obama's protracted nomination fight with Hillary Clinton. When Obama emerged as the winner, Dodd began making it clear that he wanted to be considered for the VP slot.

But he's not exactly ideal running-mate material. A liberal from Connecticut, he'd do little to expand the Democratic ticket's geographic or ideological appeal, and—despite his considerable Washington experience—his credentials wouldn't necessarily provide the instant reassurance on national security issues that Obama would presumably want in a gray-haired running-mate.  read more »

You’ve probably seen or read about the new poll in Connecticut that gives Joe Lieberman his worst marks ever – a 45-43 approval rating. A second poll released this morning finds that Lieberman’s addition to John McCain’s ticket would actually turns off far more Connecticut voters than it would excite.

The numbers can be partly attributed to Lieberman’s prominent role in the presidential campaign as a McCain surrogate. Elected officials often pay a price in their backyard for venturing onto the national stage. Not surprisingly, Chris Dodd – who spent most of 2007 and the first three days of 2008 waging a hopeless presidential campaign – also scored his worst-ever job approval numbers in the same poll.  read more »

Dec. 13—There are a few ways of judging the “winner” of a presidential debate.

If one candidate blunders egregiously—think of Bob Dole’s refusal to sign a “no new taxes” pledge in the final pre-New Hampshire debate in 1988—then that candidate’s main rival (or rivals) wins.

Likewise, if one candidate breaks through the on-stage clutter with a catchy sound-bite or memorable bit of theater that will be replayed endlessly in the media—like Ronald Reagan’s “I paid for this microphone” dramatics in 1980—then that candidate is the winner.

And if nothing particularly noteworthy transpires, then the front-runner wins by default.

But it’s tough to place today’s Democratic debate—the final encounter between all of the candidates (minus Dennis Kucinich) before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses—into any of these categories.  read more »

He also laid into the Bush White House, calling it the "most arrogant, incompetent" administration.  read more »

In a lengthy interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Fred Thompson became the latest endangered presidential candidate to invoke John Kerry’s name.

Asked what kind of showing he will need to make in Iowa, where he now hovers around 10 percent in polls, Mr. Thompson replied, “It’s hard to say. But I’m planning on doing well. I think John Kerry had about nine percent at this stage of the game and went on to win. So, you know, Iowa changes sometimes in a very short order.”  read more »

So now that Barack Obama will vote against Michael Mukasey's nomination for Attorney General--joining his fellow Democratic candidate Chris Dodd, who helped set this chain of events in motion two days ago--here are a couple of things to keep an eye on:

With the Democrats set to debate on national television tonight, does Hillary Clinton run the risk of looking out of place – especially to the party base, which is incensed by Mukas  read more »

After the influential Meet the Press audience had turned its television sets off, Mr. Dodd at last offered a truly newsworthy pronouncement that might have ramifications both on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.  read more »

Look out, John Edwards -- Chris Dodd has a new ad.

Alright, Dodd is probably the least of Edwards' concerns at this point. But the ad, which takes place in a barber shop, purposefully draws comparisons to John Edwards' $400 hair-styling fiasco – as noted here and here.

It also functions as a sort of unflattering homage to Edwards in another way, by making the argument -- as Edwards has consistently tried to do -- that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama aren't all that electable.

"And if he got nominated we'd have a Democratic who could win," says one of the barbers, before Dodd walks into the barbershop and an Opie look-alike jumps out of his chair.

Chris Dodd, who was endorsed by the International Association of Fire Fighters, is looking for a hand getting on the ballot in ten states, including New York.

From a campaign email:

“We need your help to collect the signatures [sic] to make sure his name is on the ballot in your state.  It doesn't have to take a lot of time and it doesn't have to take a lot of work to help Chris Dodd become the next President of the United States.”

[skip]

“We're looking for help in the following states; Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Vermont, and Virginia.  If you have friends or family in any of those states that would like to help please pass the word along.”

The full email is after the jump.  read more »

At last, Chris Dodd has made a significant contribution to the Democratic presidential race.

The Connecticut Senator, who hopelessly hovers near zero percent in polls and who seems to begin an inordinate number of his answers in debates with “I agree with what everyone else has said so far,” violated his own prohibition on making waves Tuesday night and took a very public swipe at Barack Obama in the latest Democratic presidential debate.  read more »

Every one of the eight Democratic candidates has the right to run for President. But not all of them have a good reason to.  read more »

Times columnist Tom Friedman just delivered a speech at the Personal Democracy Forum entitled “What happens when we all have a dog’s hearing,” about the saturation of communication technology in our lives. (As if to prove his point, the speech was delivered against an audio backdrop of blogger key-strokes.)

After reading his speech, he told the audience that he didn’t think the 2008 election cycle was a big leap forward, technologically speaking.  read more »

It wasn’t until after Hillary Clinton’s most recent visit to Nevada this Sunday that I noticed this, but as one of her donors based there told me, she was the beneficiary of a fund-raiser hosted for her at the local Four Seasons a month ago by two supporters named Brian and Myra Greenspun.

Brian Greenspun is the editor of the Las Vegas Sun, one of the city's two daily newspapers.

The paper disclosed its editor's political activity in an April 17 blog post that said that the Greenspun family, "which publishes the Las Vegas Sun, donated a combined $31,400 this year to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton." (Greenspun’s official title is “President and Editor.”)

Senators Barack Obama and Chris Dodd also received donations from the family, but, according to the paper, "Sun Editor Brian Greenspun is a close friend of President Bill Clinton, the senator's husband."

Given the fact that Nevada is going to hold one of the country's earliest and potentially most influential primary contests, that seems like a pretty useful friendship for the Clintons to have.