Chris Dodd for President

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd sees the middle class as the foundation of the United States.

It’s the middle class, he said Tuesday evening in Fort Dodge, that builds the country, runs the Scout troops and holds its families together.

The Democrat from Connecticut plans to help middle class folks afford their health care and the educations of their children if he becomes president.

Speaking to about 40 people at the Fort Dodge Public Library, Dodd outlined his concept of a ‘‘universal health mart’’ to ensure that every American could go to the doctor.

He said the strategy calls for gradually enrolling everyone in the health care program now available to federal employees. Everyone, he said, would pay into the program and everyone would get benefits from it.

The candidate proposes to reward providers who develop preventive medicine programs that keep people out of hospitals.

Dodd said Tuesday he’d start implementing the program in January 2009 if he’s elected.

As a senator, he’s already moving to help people with their health care. He has just authored an amendment to a federal law that would give family members of wounded veterans six months of leave from work to care for that veteran. He said the amendment passed the Senate unanimously and awaits action by the House of Representatives.

The amendment is to the Family Medical Leave Act that he championed about 10 years ago. . . .

Standing on the front stoop of Joe and Sarah Pace's Pleasant View Drive home while his young daughter Christina hugged his leg, Sen. Chris Dodd told a crowd of 40 people why he decided to run for president.
Dodd, a longtime Democratic senator from Connecticut, told the crowd of his daughter's birth just two days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"I'm standing before you because of this young lady and her sister, who's 2 1/2, wondering what kind of world we're going to leave them," said Dodd, 63.
Dodd arrived at the Paces' house party just after 1:30 p.m. He addressed the crowd for more than an hour, touching up on his decades of experience in politics, his universal health care plan, his foreign policy experience and his plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
He acknowledged that he is not as well known as some of the candidates, but hopes the style of New Hampshire primary politics can change that.
Dodd was first elected to Congress in 1974 and served three terms in the House of Representatives before being elected a senator in 1980.
"I think experience does matter to people," Dodd said. "We've been through six years of on-the-job training with this administration." . . .

For Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd, the next president won't just need to have great ideas, but he or she will also have to be great at bringing people together to talk about them.

Instead of focusing on many of the hot-button issues of the day, the five-term Connecticut senator focused much of his speech on the importance of intangible qualities like courage, passion, and an ability to "bring people to the table" that the next president will need to have.

"It has to be deeper then checking the boxes," he said. "People have to have a gut reaction to you."

Dodd, who has spent the past few days in Iowa speaking about health care, highlighted his record of building consensus on the Senate floor.

Instead of lecturing on Iraq or health care in front of the Hillary Clinton and John Edwards button-wearing crowd, Dodd said the first thing he would do in office is restore the Constitution. . . .

U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd drew cheers at a local house party yesterday while touting his ideas to withdraw from Iraq, reform health care and expand service volunteer groups in the country.
Citing the need for change because the country "has taken a detour in many areas," Dodd cautioned that if Democrats aren't able to demonstrate an ability to effect change, the shift experienced in 2006 elections will be short-lived.
"This could happen in 2008," Dodd said while fielding questions at Selectman Elizabeth Roth's home during the first day of a two-day tour through the state. "We're going to see a shift if we don't bring in positive ideas."
He also said he'd soon advocate for stronger legislation to end funding for U.S. troops in Iraq past March 2008, saying that the country shouldn't have to wait until the Bush administration ends before troops can come home.
"I don't think we need to wait that long," Dodd said. . . .

Experience counts, and that's what U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) is offering the American public — his experience dealing with tough issues along with his willingness to reach across the aisle in order to do what's right for the country.
Slowly gaining momentum in a crowded field of eight Democrats vying for their party's nomination, Dodd believes in meeting with Americans, looking them in the eye and answering any and all questions they might have. Wrapping up a two-day visit across the Granite State, Dodd spent 90 minutes at The Conway Daily Sun on Monday, meeting with the Sun's editorial staff and fielding a wide range of questions from Iraq to his view on the environment to just who Chris Dodd really is. He was upbeat and shared a number of stories including his late father's (Sen. Thomas J. Dodd) involvement as one of the lead prosecutors during the Nuremberg Nazi war crimes tribunals, along with purchasing a cottage in Ireland from someone who actually recognized him.
"I'm a decent guy, a decent person had good friends and maintain loyal friendships over the years," Dodd said when asked to describe himself. "I come from a large family. I don't know if it's large by today's standards, but we're all pretty close.
"My oldest brother, Tom, just retired after 31 years teaching at Georgetown Foreign Service Code and was the U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay and Costa Rica. My sister Carolyn, who was legally blind from birth, just retired after 41 years of being an early child development specialist and helped to found the American Montessori System of Teaching. She's a remarkable woman who taught in the inner city of Hartford Schools. My brother Jeremy...is involved with kids in the juvenile justice system, trying to get their lives back together. He was also a photographer. And, I have a sister who lives in Providence (R.I.), who has five kids and 17 grandchildren and I have a younger brother who had a stroke years ago who I take care of. He lives with us in Connecticut. He's an interesting guy but he's had his struggles. My parents died young. My father was my age (63) when he died in 1971. My mother died two years later in '73. I grew up in a public family, a public life. My father was the chief prosecutor at Nuremberg under Robert Jackson."
Dodd, 63, has a book coming out on Sept. 12 about the Nuremberg Trials, based on letters his father wrote to his mother. "I found these letters," he said. "He wrote my mother every day from Nuremberg when I was a year old. I never knew these letters existed until recently."
When it comes to his strengths as a candidate, Dodd ranks experience high on the list. "I have the experience of doing this, not just talking about it, but I have a proven ability having done this over the years," he said. "I have the reputation among my colleagues of having that capacity and capability. I think that's one of the major missing ingredients in all of this. So it's not just experience, having time being there, but what did you do with the time while you were there. The fact that it's been comprehensive in covering domestic as well as foreign policy issues I think is also critical at this juncture as well. . . .