Senator Dodd Considering Run for President

I want to keep giving space to different possible Democratic candidates for president, and Senator Dodd should now be added to the list. The three potential candidates who interest me the most are John Edwards, Wesley Clark and Russ Feingold. I have a high regard for Al Gore and John Kerry but we'll see how things go. There are other candidates, of course, and I'll be posting on them as well. Hillary Clinton is currently seen as the front runner but I see a lot of obstacles for her just to get the nomination not to mention winning the November 2008 election.

My impression of Senator Dodd is that he's a solid and straightforward Democrat, maybe a little too much on the conservative side of the party, but there's no questioning his ability and intelligence. Here's an article on Dodd from CNN (hat tip to The Huffington Post):

U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd said that he is eyeing a presidential bid in 2008, joining a packed field of Democrats considering a White House run.

The Connecticut Democrat outlined his decision in Tuesday editions of The Hartford Courant, his state's largest newspaper.

"This is the right time for me," he told the paper. "This is the right thing to do."

Dodd, who turns 62 Saturday, is serving his fifth term in the Senate.

The lawmaker has flirted with the idea of a presidential run before. He briefly considered a bid in 2004 but chose instead to back Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the junior senator from Connecticut, in his ultimately unsuccessful quest for the Democratic nomination.

(snip)

Dodd told the Hartford newspaper he plans "to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008," such as hiring campaign staff and traveling to key states to gauge support for a potential candidacy.

By 2008, right wing Republicans will have so damaged this country that I doubt any Democrat can win who tries to be Republican lite. I don't know where Senator Dodd will position himself. I assume his endorsement of Lieberman had more to do with being from the same state. But this time around, a Democrat who is a true moderate or even liberal who knows who they are and speaks more from the heart than based on the latest readings of the polls will have the best chance. When a nation feels a strong need for reform, and that feeling is building, conventional, mainstream politicians of either party might not have the best chance unless they distinguish themselves in a way that is consistent with who they are.

There's one thing I hope Democratic candidates remember above all else: the more a candidate gets clever in the way they positon themselves or the way they articulate their positions, the more they'll remind the nation of a George W. Bush who never quite tells the truth. And no matter who the Republicans run, no candidate on their side will be able to seperate themselves from the record of the current president. And that includes Senator John McCain.