Dodd Didn’t Wake Up One Day and Decide to Run For President

Sen. Chris Dodd, one of eight Democrats running for president, told members of the Iowa Democratic State Central Committee that “Iowa is going to be a blue state for years to come” and that his candidacy wasn’t a boyhood dream.

“I’ve come out here a lot over the years on behalf of Democrats,” Dodd told members of the committee, the Iowa Democratic Party leadership and guests at a meeting Saturday in Des Moines. “I’ve been to Jefferson-Jackson dinners going back 20 years or more for Tom [Harkin] and others. I’m coming into the state now in a new capacity. I didn’t wake up at age 10 and decide I wanted to be president of the United States.”

Life experience and a belief that he can make a difference are what led him to this path, he said.

“This quest is a labor of love for me,” he said. “I’ve got two very young children and I firmly believe that they and all the children in America need a good and solid future. The reason I’m standing before you today and offering myself is because we have so much at risk. If I went around this room and asked what was the single-most important thing to you, I suspect the answer almost unanimously would be your children and your grandchildren and what type of a country you and I are leaving them. The stakes could not be higher.”

Dodd went on to praise Iowa and New Hampshire for the role they play in the nomination process.

“I’ve come to appreciate immensely what Iowa and New Hampshire mean in terms of giving people like me a chance,” he said. “I’m not as well-heeled financially — you all know that — I’m not as well-loved. But I also know that you, in this state, don’t get overly impressed by all of that.

“You like to make up your own minds and don’t like to be told by others what the choice is going to be when the caucus meets in January. You like to kick the tires and you like to get a feel for who we are, what we’ve been, where we’ve been, what we stand for, what we believe in, whether or not we are electable and, if elected, what we are going to do for the country and for the people across our nation.”

Without Iowa and New Hampshire, Dodd says, the process would be “a lot more exclusionary” and different.

“If this was only going to be a race where you ran on how many campaign ads you can buy and by only visiting the delegate-rich states, I think this would be a very different process indeed,” he said. “We web-cast almost every house party we do in Iowa and New Hampshire so the country has an opportunity to tune in to your questions and my answers.”

Dodd added that “having been the general chairman of this party, having been through eight elections, having been very involved in almost every presidential race over the years… whatever else happens here, I’m absolutely committed to seeing Iowa is the first-in-the-nation caucus for as long as I’m breathing.”

Dodd also discussed his belief in national service, ending the war in Iraq and saving the environment (included in attached audio clip) before moving into a question-and-answer period. The senator from Connecticut will return to Iowa on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to roll out a health care plan.