After following the coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign, you could not be faulted for concluding that the race is about U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the remaining baker's dozen of declared candidates. You could not be faulted, but you would be wrong.
In spite of the worst efforts of those of us with press passes, political campaigns — most especially presidential campaigns — are not about the candidates. Presidential campaigns are really about the voters, the country and the future.
One candidate who understands that fundamental truth about politics is the talented senior U.S. senator from Connecticut and declared Democratic presidential candidate, Chris Dodd. After last week's Washington meeting of the firefighters' union, where 11 presidential candidates appeared and where nobody won more cheers and standing ovations from the firefighters in the hall than he did, Dodd put it this way: "Candidates always think elections are about them. They're wrong. Elections are about people."
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