Posted on 01/15/2007 2:21:18 PM PST by Graybeard58
Besides the usual kneepad journalism from The Hartford Courant, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's entry into the 2008 Democratic presidential field last week produced a big fat yawn in Connecticut and barely registered nationally; even his fellow travelers at The New York Times buried the news.
His decision did touch off some discussion about why he was abandoning Connecticut -- overall, not a bad thing -- to be Don Quixote to the windmills of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Some speculated he's jockeying for a future Cabinet post, but more than a few Democrats whispered about vanity. That's more plausible, and compels a brief examination of how his ego got this big.
Sen. Dodd is popular in Connecticut. Why not? He's a liberal from a liberal state who reflexively supports liberal, socialist, even communist causes. But his next tough campaign will be his first. All he's done to win and keep his Senate seat is beat the Forgettable Five -- Republicans James Buckley, Roger Eddy, Brook Johnson, Waterbury's Gary Franks and Jack Orchulli.
Sen. Dodd fancies himself a tough campaigner, but he shows all the symptoms of Barbara Kennelly Syndrome (BKS), which afflicts many Connecticut Democrats. For 14 years, Mrs. Kennelly was the biannual shoo-in congresswoman from the 1st District, among the safest Democratic districts in the nation. She had a political reputation and pedigree rivaling Sen. Dodd's, but frequent electoral successes and constant adulation brought on delusions of grandeur, popularity and invincibility, the main symptoms of BKS. And so it was that on her first foray outside her fiefdom, she ran into a formidable candidate (then-Gov. John G. Rowland), who dispatched her to the political graveyard.
Like the similarly afflicted, Sen. Dodd shows all the signs of BKS, hence his presidential bid. But it won't be long before Sens. Clinton and Obama and the rest of the field pierce his pomposity and smoke his presidential aspirations.
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At least he's winning over the southern vote with his position against the South Carolina state flag. ;o)
Dodd stands to become president just about a week before hell frezes over.
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It's the booze talking, not him. :-)
Running for President of Nicaragua?
Pretty well tops with the Sandanistas.
I was really impressed with him yesterday...when I heard him refer to the new troops going into Iraq as "kids"../s
His last grasp for political immortality.
He said that there was a disease which afflicts U.S. Senators once every four years. The symptoms are that despite not being known outside their own state afflicted Senators wake up one morning thinking, not only that they should be President, but that they can get elected.
He was talking about Bob Smith, but this also applies to people like Bob Graham in 2004 and Dodd in 2008.
I don't know about the others, but if they were going up against Dodd they probably had more memorable things to say than the repetitive knee-jerk liberal blather that he comes up with on a daily basis.
Try matching campaign funds. License to steal.
Here's the thing...over the course of the last few election cycles, the Dims have bloodied each other for the nomination, leaving a clear path for a temperate Republican candidate.
This time, the Republicans are likely to bloody each other. A non-intrusive Dim candidate can expect to do well simply by being the other name on the ballot.
President Reagan said that the people will let you know if they want you to run for president (the book to read is his autobiography).
Now we have a host of clowns, both Dems and Reps, who think the people want them to run when in fact the people are laughing. Mediocrity rules the day.
Amusing post, thanks. Dodd is a dud with delusions of being dandy.
Am sure that his fellow Conn. Senator...Joe L. will not
even vote fort him..He is a great admirer of himself...
that is all..over and out..JK
Chris Dud's first pronouncement as a Presidential candidate is to complain about the State Flag of the soverign state of South Carolina. It is either comforting that the Dud thinks CT is in such fine shape that our biggest concern is another state's flag or chilling that he is so unaware of our state's condition.
Dodd? LOL You have got to be kidding! LOL
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