Chris Dodd for President

I'm very happy to let everyone know that Mike Caulfield, one of the founders of Blue Hampshire, has endorsed Chris Dodd for President. Dean Barker, another Blue Hampshire co-founder, endorsed Senator Dodd in early September.

While Senator Dodd has been able to accumulate a great number of endorsements from a wide range of bloggers, Caulfield takes a very unique approach in writing his endorsement. Caulfield goes back over the course of Senator Dodd's twenty-six year tenure in the Senate and quotes news articles telling of Dodd's principled, progressive leadership in the face of adversity that produced real, meaningful change. Caulfield brings us back to Dodd's leadership in helping bring peace in Latin America and Northern Ireland, to standing up to the Reagan administration's bellicose foreign policy, to fighting tirelessly to pass the Family & Medical Leave Act, to managing the passage of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, and more.

After spanning an inspiring range of stories about Chris Dodd, Caulfield writes about why he think Chris Dodd should be our President:

Dodd entered the Senate the very year the conservative movement arrived to dismantle the the progressive dream wholesale. Yet in that environment, in the 25 year period that will go down as the Conservative Era, he found ways to expand and extend that progressive dream.

Sometimes it was by getting on TV and telling the truth, no matter how offensive the civilized members of his party may have found it.

Sometimes is was through thoughtful negotiation with enemies. Other times it was through skillful navigation of complex rules of parliamentary procedure. Sometimes it was a late evening bulldozer push. And yes, sometimes it was about waiting to the 17th hole of golf to bring up the question of Gerry Adams's visa.

But it was always about how to get things done.

I've seen this on the campaign. Confronted with any new tool, the first question that occurs to Team Dodd is not "Can we use this for marketing?" but "How can we use this to advance our progressive agenda?"

So while Hillary took online suggestions for a campaign song, Dodd took online suggestions for filibuster reading material. While Obama built up his MySpace account, Dodd and his team built tools to route anti-FISA calls to Senators. While other campaigns invited bloggers to phone calls where the latest talking points were recycled, Dodd invited us into war-room like sessions where the strategy for cutting war funding was discussed and explained.

Personally, I believe we are at a 1932 moment in history. The last gasp of the Reaganism that tainted even the Clinton administration is being played out on that Republican debate stage. After November, they will sweep the remains of that grand movement into the dustbin of history.

You could choose those that stood back, and waited until history was on their side before they moved bold agendas forward. You could hope that their theories of change were correct.

Or you could choose the person, who, against all odds, advanced the progressive agenda through every means at his disposal.

I've seen Dodd sailing against the wind and been amazed. I can only imagine what he will do with the wind at his back.

Please join me in supporting Chris Dodd.

His readers will be able to look at this and see with utmost clarity why he stands with Chris Dodd.

Frankly, I cannot imagine a more ringing endorsement of a candidate who is basing his run on a career of leadership that got the job done than one in which the author sees results as the true test of the value of a person's words. I'm impressed that Mike - like many New Hampshire voters and astute political commentators - isn't content to decide who he will be voting for based on the coverage we're seeing about rhetoric being bandied about today. Instead he looks at Dodd's full record and measures the other Democratic candidates against it.

One of the themes that Caulfield brings out most convincingly is that Chris Dodd didn't just find out what he believes in when he started running for President. He didn't gain his voice when handed the microphone of a presidential candidacy - he's always had the courage to speak out on principle. He doesn't measure his experience by the resumes of the people advising him on policy - he helped shape the course of our country over twenty-six years in the Senate. He has consistently produced results that Democrats can be proud of.

As Mike writes, "I've seen Dodd sailing against the wind and been amazed. I can only imagine what he will do with the wind at his back."

Thank you for your support Mike! With your help and the help of countless others, we will see Chris Dodd in the White House in January 2009.

New Hampshire blogger Peter Glenshaw, who's also the Dodd campaign's Grafton County Co-Chair, has a great run down of recent political blogging news and Dodd campaign news coming out of New Hampshire. Check it out if you've been looking for a resource to stay posted on how the Dodd campaign is making progress in the Granite State.

Regular readers of the Dodd Blog probably know by now that Blue Hampshire is the premier site for political news in New Hampshire, particularly when it comes to presidential politics. Dean Barker, one of the site's founders, has endorsed Chris Dodd for President. Today's Wall Street Journal has an in-depth profile of Blue Hampshire and their work which has made themselves one of the most important local blogs in the country when it comes to presidential politics.

Blue Hampshire has distinguished themselves throughout the campaign for their hard work. Notably their presidential policy straw poll brought together one of the most comprehensive collections of comparative statements from the Democratic candidates on a wide range of critical issues.

In addition to being one of the best looks in the traditional press that I can recall seeing about what it takes to blog at a high level and how hard bloggers work to provide good coverage, the WSJ piece and Blue Hampshire bloggers speak highly of the Dodd campaign's efforts to outreach to them.

Connecticut's Mr. Dodd has been careful not to commit such a faux pas [of canceling meetings with Blue Hampshire bloggers] and has benefited as a result.

Mr. Dodd and his staff have actively courted the Blue Hampshire bloggers. Mr. Browner-Hamlin, the blog outreach staffer for Mr. Dodd, regularly posted items on Blue Hampshire. In one, he wrote enthusiastically on Mr. Dodd's Web site about meeting the "renowned" bloggers at a New Hampshire Democratic party event. Phone calls and daily emails to the bloggers with tidbits about Mr. Dodd's activities led to a steady stream of items on the Blue Hampshire site.

The more the bloggers heard about Mr. Dodd's views, the more they were impressed, Mr. Caulfield says.

On Sept. 5, Mr. Barker formally endorsed Mr. Dodd. "Chris Dodd is the strongest proponent of the progressive issues that matter most to me, and I trust him to carry those issues forward as president," he wrote.

Senator Dodd's hard work and our work in support of him is yielding results. While the article speaks well on our campaign's efforts, Senator Dodd would not be getting endorsements from these highly informed and thoughtful bloggers like Barker or Bob Geiger if he wasn't sincerely the candidate that they want to have as our next President. He's demonstrated clear leadership and presented bold, progressive ideas that resonate with Democrats around the country, online and offline. I think he'll continue to be recognized as Dean and others have.

Blue Hampshire has their weekly straw poll up today. The topic is China:

"I am the only candidate who has stood up for American families by authoring legislation that would level the playing field with China and called for the President to use his authority to protect Americans from unsafe imports coming from China.

"America's companies and workers deserve an opportunity to compete on fair terms with China, just as we provide market access for them.  That is why I introduced the Currency Reform and Financial Markets Act of 2007, which creates tough, new authority for both the Treasury Department and the Congress to provide a level playing field for U.S. businesses and workers.  It also clarifies the definition of currency manipulation and will prevent ambiguity or delay in addressing the problem.  No other legislation encompasses these two elements.

"Last month, as reports came in that products from China coming into America were unsafe, I was the first candidate to call on President Bush to immediately suspend all imports of toys and food from China.  We have the legal right and authority under the WTO to keep products out of our country that threaten the health and safety of our families.  As President, I will ensure we do so."

Go vote for Senator Dodd!

This post was authored by Dean Barker of Blue Hampshire. In it he endorses Chris Dodd for President. It is reprinted below with his permission.

After many months, since December in fact, I'm ready to make a decision and declare my support:

I am proud to endorse Chris Dodd for President.

Why Dodd? There are three fundamental reasons, but in the end it comes down to this.  Chris Dodd is the strongest proponent of the progressive issues that matter most to me, and I trust him to carry those issues forward as President.

I'll start with what I believe to be the single most critical issue facing our country: the very survival of our Constitution.

I teach Latin and Greek for a living.  That means that I relive with students every year the collapse of the representative government of the Roman Republic and the rise of a dictatorship clothed in the language of "Empire."  Today, we face a crisis in the very checks and balances of our constitution.  Like the Romans, we have seen develop over the years an increasingly powerful executive branch.  Its current manifestation is run amok - torture, secrecy, illegal spying, illegitimate war, a justice department no longer blind - take your pick.  And like the Romans, we run the risk of losing one of the best experiments in government the world has yet seen if we do nothing to stop this trend. I do not want to see this country, which has given me so much, lose its soul in my lifetime. I at least owe it that much.

One of the central planks of Chris Dodd's campaign is restoring the Constitution.  Others mention it, but he has put it front and center, and led on it.  And this was the video that essentially sealed the deal for me.