Chris Dodd for President

Senator Dodd sat down with Jerid Kurtz of Buckeye State Blog for fifteen minutes yesterday. Jerid has posted the podcast of the interview here. Give it a listen: it's a wide-ranging interview that touches on Dodd's American Community Initiative, habeas corpus, using the Dodd energy policy as a vehicle for job creation, and expanding broadband access to rural communities. My favorite part of the interview actually came at the end, when Senator Dodd talks to Jerid about the role bloggers are playing in the presidential campaign.

Jerid: Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule Senator. I hear you're off to another campaign stop. Sen. Dodd: I am, you bet I am. You're great to come along. You're invited all the time to be with us. I want to thank bloggers generally. You've made it possible for guys like me to be able to reach an audience. A lot of the so-called national media don't want to pay attention, except to the celebrity candidates. And what bloggers are doing is making sure that those of use who are not celebrities at this point get heard. So on issue after issue, were it not for the bloggers, my efforts on habeas corpus and torture wouldn't have gotten as much currency. Bloggers made it possible. My views on the Corporate Carbon Tax to deal with global warming got a great expansion of coverage thanks to the bloggers. My national service idea yesterday got great coverage. It was a hard time to get the national media to cover an important issue - bloggers cover it and you're reaching a huge audience. You're making possible for a lot of Americans to learn about those of us who think we deserve a better chance to be heard on our views. So I'm very grateful and you're invited to be a part of everything we do. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Visit Buckeye State Blog to hear the whole interview.

The Anon Guy of Dullard Mush has posted Part II of his interview with Senator Dodd. Part I can be read here. Here's a clip from Part II:

TAG: What would be the one message you would hope Americans learn from your campaign? CJD: At a time when the stakes could not be greater, I offer proven leadership that all Americans can trust. From my service in the Peace Corps to my service in leadership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, I am a proven leader in strengthening our families and our country. My proven leadership gives me the ability to bring people together to get things done, which I did when I authored and helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the FIRE and SAFER Acts, which have provided more than $3 billion in essential training, equipment and staffing resources to our nation’s fire departments. After six years of on-the-job training that has weakened the middle class at home and diminished our standing in the world, we need proven leadership that we can trust to do the right thing and get things done.

Hello hello - my name is Matt Browner-Hamlin and today's my first day on the Dodd campaign. I've been blogging about progressive politics for over two years but this is my first time working on a campaign's staff. I'm joining the Dodd campaign now because I believe he is what we need in our next president -- he has boldly lead through his actions, based on his convictions to do what is right. I'm very excited to come help Senator Dodd become the next President of the United States.

I wanted to tell you about what I'll be doing for the Dodd campaign. As you can tell, we've just launched a redesigned version of ChrisDodd.com. I've joined the campaign to help add content to the site so that Senator Dodd's supporters will know what he and his campaign staff are doing as it's happening. I'll be traveling with Senator Dodd on his campaign trips. My blog posts will aim to give readers a window into the Dodd campaign - what we're doing, where we're going, and what Senator Dodd is talking about.

But my job will go far beyond writing about the campaign. As I travel with Senator Dodd around America, I'll be posting videos from the trail. Lots of video. We're going to be doing exciting things with live streaming web video that will provide viewers an insiders look into what Senator Dodd is doing. This campaign is going to be transparent in real time because we believe that the more people get to know Senator Dodd, the more they will like him.

I'm also going to be posting Twitter updates that are fed directly into the front page of ChrisDodd.com.