U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin says he’s an unabashed supporter of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., as Barack Obama’s running mate. Meanwhile, Harkin, who ran for the presidency himself in 1992, says “realism” holds that Hillary Clinton has little chance of making the cut for vice presidential candidate as “latent” sexism and racism would give such a ticket perhaps too steep a cultural hill to climb.

Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois and the Democratic presidential candidate, has yet to make the vice presidential candidate decision, but with the Democratic National Convention starting in a week, the choice is imminent. Harkin elaborated on his pitch for Dodd during an interview with Iowa Independent over the weekend.

“Dodd is my No. 1 pick but I don’t know where it’s going,” Harkin said.

During the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines in late 2007, the Iowa Independent noticed the connection between Dodd and Obama and listed Dodd at the top of a running mate ranking story.

Harkin said veteran legislator Dodd knows how to move bills through Congress, which will be important to an Obama administration facing international issues.

“He’s going to need a vice president that can help him get his legislative package through the Congress,” Harkin said. “And I can’t think of anyone who can do it better than Chris Dodd.”

Another big consideration, Harkin said, is that Dodd is well-liked by Republicans and Democrats.

“He knows how to work across party lines as evidenced by the fact that he just got this big foreclosure bill done,” Harkin said.

Harkin said Dodd also would be a major asset for the Obama campaign in the Latino-rich Southwest — a region many analysts believe will be decisive in the presidential race.

“He (Dodd) speaks fluent Spanish,” Harkin said. “The Hispanic community loves him. That would be a great outreach for Barack Obama.”

Dodd developed his Spanish-language skills during a stint in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic as a young man. During one campaign stop in Carroll as a presidential candidate last fall, Dodd conducted a video-taped bilingual interview with the Daily Times Herald and La Prensa, a Carroll-based Western Iowa Spanish-language newspaper.

In terms of other candidates thought to be in the Obama veepstakes, Harkin said he strongly doubts U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton will be the vice presidential selection.

“It’s realism,” Harkin said. “I know full well that if Hillary had gotten the nomination she would never have picked Obama, and if he gets it, he’s not going to pick her for a very simple reason: there’s a lot of latent racism and sexism in this country. It’s hard enough for a woman to win. Then if you add an African American on the ticket, or vice versa, if you have an African-American running and you add a woman on, you add racism and sexism together. That’s a pretty steep hill to climb.”

Tanya Austin was an Arab linguist in military intelligence serving with the U.S. Army. Describing the situation in Iraq, she said, “It’s not a war anymore; its an occupation.” She is a student at Illinois State University pursuing a degree in Middle Eastern studies.

After blowing out her knee, Austin described the treatment she was given from the Veterans Health Administration (also known as the VA). Because she was denied orthopedic care, she paid for knee surgery out of her own pocket and was eventually medically discharged.

Austin said she had thoughts of suicide during her subsequent treatment and said, “The VA way of dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is to drug you.”

She served from 2002-04 and testified at the recent Winter Soldier hearings in Silver Spring, Md.

Iowa City native and Iraq War veteran Andrew Duffy suffers from PTSD, but that didn’t stop him from founding the Iowa City chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Duffy is still serving in the Iowa Army National Guard and said he has taken some abuse for opposing the War in Iraq. He filed congressional complaints for harassment he said he has received.

Duffy served as a medic at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison from 2005-06. He listed many factors that have led to his opposition to the war,including improper equipment, insufficient training, bad intelligence, poor cultural training and overt anti-Iraqi racism.

In this video, he discusses the racist terminology and attitudes used by fellow soldiers stationed in Iraq:

The event was part of the University of Iowa Anti-War Committee’s “Peace Week,” which continues through Saturday.

Also on the panel were Navy vet Nathan Peld and Air Force vet Jason Munford, who raised a conscientious objection to military service and was discharged.