Now, I had said to everyone that my first proper Presidential post was going to be on Rudy Giuliani, because everybody keeps commenting about him on my posts. But two things got rid of that idea. First, I realised that Giuliani hadn’t officially declared yet, and is in fact “straddling a gray area between candidate and non-candidate”. With so many candidates actually in the field, I decided it wasn’t the best idea to get ahead of myself right from the beginning. But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll post about him at some point – he’s an interesting guy.

And then the other morning I saw this, which I just found so hysterically funny I couldn’t avoid posting about it. Senator Chris Dodd has clearly decided that, what with being up against that young and hip candidate Barack Obama and everyone calling this the ‘YouTube election’, he’s got to get down with the modern technology. And the DoddPod is the result. Because Senator Dodd is travelling so much he really likes his iPod, so someone (probably a fresh-faced young staffer who will now be ritually humiliated) came up with the clever idea of getting people to suggest songs for him to listen to on his website. Wonkette, in their infinite cruelty, suggested ‘Even the losers (get lucky sometimes)’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and commented “There’s hope!”.

So, does this sum up Chris Dodd’s candidacy?

Dodd is, in essence, a Senator from Connecticut who most people have never heard of. As shown on his website, he has a happy smiling family, so that’s one criteria filled. He was reportedly considering running in 2004 but decided against it, and in April 2006 told the Associated Press he would think about running this time round, because it was an “itch” that would not disappear.

But does Dodd actually have what it takes to be President?

According to Wikipedia, Dodd is of Irish-American descent, is one of the more liberal members of the Senate, speaks fluent Spanish and is hated by the NRA. In The Fix’s most recent episode of The Line (a weekly post ranking candidates in order), he does not even place. And while Dodd says he thinks he’s the ‘dark horse’ for the nomination, this is not the race to be an underdog in. In hindsight, he would have been far better off running 4 years ago. While news reports such as this briefly considered him as the solution to the can-Hillary-beat-the-Republicans question, there are far too many viable candidates in the field now for him to make much of an impact. If not Clinton, then Obama. If not Obama, then Edwards. If not Edwards, then…a whole lot of other people with more name recognition than Dodd. Bill Richardson has the advantages of being a Governor (statistically far more likely to become President) and Hispanic; Tom Vilsack has the heartwarming all-American story and also happens to be Governor of Iowa, where the first caucus is held.

And then, of course, there’s the fundraising issue. With Clinton and Obama opting out of the public finance system for the campaign, this is on track to being the most expensive Presidential campaign in history. And there is no way Chris Dodd can compete with the amount of money other candidates are likely to raise.

But there is something about Chris Dodd. You can’t help feeling, somehow, that he ought to be President. He has gravitas, experience and is well-liked. He’s the kind of candidate who would have done well 10 or 20 years ago. But not now. Not in the internet age, where candidates have the ability to engage with the people directly 24/7 via YouTube, podcasts, etc. 2008 is going to be a battle between the big names, and unfortunately Chris Dodd is not one of them.

Chris Dodd is taking requests [Wonkette]
Democratic Sen. Dodd Enters Presidential Race [Washington Post]
Christopher John Dodd [Congresspedia]
Chris Dodd For President

Filed under: election2008, uspolitics on January 28th, 2007