Chris Dodd for President

Campaign staffers for Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., flittered about Cedar Rapids Mayor Kay Halloran's dining room, nervously checking the time and periodically slipping out the door to make phone calls from the relative quiet of the front yard.

When Dodd arrived, the hum of conversation ceased immediately, and everyone crowded into Halloran's living room to hear him speak.

"There is more at stake now than at any point in history," the senator said. "We are precariously close to not getting it right and being the first generation of Americans to leave our children with fewer opportunities than we had."

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