Chris Dodd for President

Big Tent Democrat has his weekly post up on MyDD. Titled "A Test of Leadership," BTD writes:

Democratic Presidential candidates who are in the Congress have, not only an opportunity, but a duty to lead the Democrats in Congress away from this disastrous course and to an approach that can end the Iraq Debacle and make clear which political party wants to end the Debacle and which one wants to continue it.
...
It is a question of leadership. Now. On Iraq.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Write to your Senators and ask them to state clearly and directly where they stand on ending the Iraq war: will they vote for legislation that does not include a firm, enforceable deadline tied to funding?

Big Tent Democrat talks about Dodd's leadership now and encourages voters to think about the presidential field in a deeper way than the normal horse race politics encourage:

But Dodd has been leading the charge on many, if not most of the critical issues we face today - like protecting and restoring the Constitution and the habeas corpus right; like fighting to rebuild Katrina-destroyed, and Bush neglected New Orleans and education, health care and all of our pressing issues.

We have many fine candidates in this race. I hope that voters will be evaluating and judging them on the substance and the merits. I believe Senator Chris Dodd is the best candidate for a number of reasons, but his commitment to fighting for us, fighting for the issues that matter to us, fighting with all his heart and abilities to end the war in Iraq, to restore and protect our Constitution, to address the pressing problems of our country NOW, is what impresses me the most and why I came to support him.

For I believe the best way to determine whether a candidate will lead as President is to watch his leadership NOW. Chris Dodd is providing great leadership now. And he will provide great leadership as the next President of the United States.

Todd Beeton writes about the positive impact of the International Association of Fire Fighters endorsement of Chris Dodd for President:

It's appropriate that Chris Dodd would accept the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with the following accolade from Harold Schaitberger, IAFF president:

The man we trust to keep our country safe and our families secure.

If we've learned anything from events such as Hurricane Katrina, the recent mining tragedies, the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis and the recall of toys and food made in China and even the administration's curbing of our constitutional rights, it's that protecting Americans goes above and beyond issues related to terrorism. And Chris Dodd, over the course of his campaign, has slowly but surely made the case that he is able and willing to be our fiercest protector on matters both big (the Habeus Corpus Restoration Act and The Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2007) and small (his strong defense of dailyKos against the attacks of Bill O'Reilly.) In fact it was this very quality that Schaitberger cited time and again in his endorsement of Dodd today.

Thanks for the great coverage BTD & Todd. To our readers, be sure to look for Big Tent Democrat's posts on MyDD every Thursday on Senator Dodd and why he's the best person to be our next President.

MyDD has started a new series where supporters of the different Democratic presidential candidates are given limited front-page blogging privileges to talk about their candidate. Big Tent Democrat of TalkLeft (aka Armando of DailyKos) was tapped to post on MyDD's front page about Senator Dodd on every Thursday. BTD's first post is now live. It's titled, "How Chris Dodd Won My Support: By Leading On the Issues Now". He leads off with a story that's actually relatively similar to my own -- of not really looking for a candidate to support, but being won over by Dodd's bold leadership on issues right now.

I never expected to be supporting any of our fine candidates for President at this point, much less Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). I was not shopping for candidates. Indeed, I insisted (insist?) that the Netroots has spent 2007 too focused on the 2008 horserace instead of being focused on the pressing issues of today, especially the Iraq issue.