Chris Dodd for President

Senator Dodd has an op-ed in the Huffington Post today in response to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell's piece in today's New York Times. Dodd's op-ed is titled "Mike McConnell is flat wrong" and in it he rebuts some of McConnell's misleading and disingenuous statements from the Times op-ed about FISA and retroactive immunity.

Read Dodd's op-ed at the Huffington Post.

Jim Craig, former minority leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, has an op-ed in support of Chris Dodd in today's Manchester Union-Leader. Here's an excerpt:

Instead of looking for a candidate that is talking about changing the country on the campaign trail, we should be looking for the candidate who actually has. For over a quarter of a century Chris Dodd has been getting results for American families rooted in our most common values balancing family and work, giving our children a world-class education -- he has been called "the children's senator" -- making sure our families and nation are secure.

When he saw more and more Americans struggling to balance family and work, Chris Dodd stood up and reached out, writing the first federal child care law since World War II and passing the Family and Medical Leave Act. It took seven years, and he had to overcome two presidential vetoes, but Dodd kept at it, bringing more people on board in support of the bill.

Today, because of his leadership, 50 million Americans have been able to take time off for themselves, to be with a loved one during a time of illness or to celebrate the birth of a child.
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We all know this is a talented field. But the New Hampshire presidential primary is our unique opportunity to weigh the vision and record of every candidate, to determine for ourselves which of them has gone beyond simply talking about change by actually producing real results for the American people. New Hampshire voters should take a close look at the candidates and ask themselves: if we want a President who can produce real change, shouldn't we elect someone who has a record of doing it? If the answer is "yes," then there's only one candidate in the field: Chris Dodd.

Read Cragi's op-ed in full here.

There's more Dodd-related goodness coming out of the Des Moines Register...

Senator Dodd has an op-ed titled "Restore our Constitution, U.S. standing in world." From the op-ed:

It starts with restoring America's security and standing in the world by ending the war in Iraq. It's not enough to wait until 2009 - that's why I've been at the front of the fight to set a firm deadline and end the funding for this failed policy. But if President Bush or this Congress does not end this war, then as the next president, I will immediately begin redeploying our troops safely and securely and finish the job within eight to 10 months. I will also strengthen our security with a return to diplomacy and engagement with the world.

Restoring our security and standing in the world also means restoring our adherence to the rule of law - so in my first hour I will restore our Constitution. The Constitution doesn't belong to one political party or candidate - it belongs to the American people.

I know Americans can't wait any longer for real results on health care. From the moment I am elected, I will bring together every stakeholder - workers, families, small businesses, Democrats and Republicans alike - and we will start the work of providing universal, affordable, quality health care to every American within four years.

I will bring that same leadership to the issue of global warming, with the boldest plan of any candidate to cut carbon emissions and invest in renewable energy. We can create a future where America relies not on the Middle East for our energy, but on the American Midwest and other regions - where our Heartland communities aren't left behind by our economy, but are the engine driving it.

Read the whole op-ed here.

Also, Senator Dodd and Jackie Clegg dodd visited the Iowa Homeless Youth Center on Wednesday - you can read about their visit and how they helped out in an article by the Register's Jason Clayworth.

In the 1980s I travelled many times to Nicaragua, where I met President Daniel Ortega. At the height of the cold war, I was subject to criticism in some quarters for meeting a leader with ties to the Soviets. But my goal wasn’t to become friends with the Sandinista president, it was to press him to renounce violence as a political tool and allow the people of Nicaragua to choose their next leader. Despite opposition from the Reagan administration, Congress voted to restrict US funding of the Contra rebel forces and Mr Ortega later agreed to elections. In 1990 Violeta Cha morro won and Mr Ortega respected the results by stepping down. As a result, Nicaragua today has an imperfect demo cracy but a democracy nonetheless. At the recent CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, we were all asked whether, as president, we would meet leaders of Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea without preconditions. With American security at stake and our reputation in the world in tatters, it was a chance for us to demonstrate how we might use diplomacy to help America lead on the global stage in the 21st century. But rather than using this opportunity to showcase to the country their diplomatic bona fides, two candidates – senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton – have chosen to squabble and make irresponsible statements. To be sure, there was little disagreement on the stage about the Bush administration’s diplomatic failures. In six years, Mr Bush and Dick Cheney have weakened America by refusing to meet representatives of certain nations, irrespective of their importance to US interests and security.