Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Dodd Endorses Obama

This is good news: Chris Dodd has endorsed Obama. Way to go, Dodd! I think his timing is good, endorsing him just before March 4, when it will generate a spot of news for a day, but long enough before the primaries in Texas and Ohio to possibly really make a difference.
I think Dodd would make an excellent choice for vice president. He has lots of experience in the Senate. He's a very solid, almost Establishment figure, but he's also earned a fair amount of street cred by fighting the Bush administration on warrantless wiretapping. So he would be a VP candidate progressives and moderates could get behind. Also, he's a white guy who is fluent in Spanish (he was in the Dominican Republic in the Peace Corps), so he could rally Hispanic voters without alienating white voters. Not a lot of downsides. Except that, according to Wikipedia, he's not interested in being Veep. So maybe I'm wrong.
And here's an interesting bit of trivia: his father, Thomas Dodd, was also a Senator from Connecticut, but, before that, served as the number two prosecutor at Nuremberg.

3 comments:

David Watkins said...

I could get behind this plan if it weren't for Jodi Rell, but not turning a blue seat red in the Senate is one of my criteria for a good VP pick.

Unknown said...

Isn't it a shame that so often those who have a strong moral/ethical code and amazing intelligence all wrapped up in a "basic good person" who you'd love to have as President, or VP, never seem to have the ego required to seek those offices?

Unknown said...

Oh, that's right, Connecticut has a Republican governor! That is a deal breaker, isn't it?

As for the ego thing, yes, it is a shame. Barack Obama seems to be the one very rare exception - a healthy ego, but not TOO healthy.