Chris Dodd for President

Here is some video from the "12 Days of Results" kick-off event in Grinnell on Thursday. Dodd addressed a standing-room-only crowd for about twenty five minutes before turning to the audience members' questions. These videos are some of the best I've seen so far. Stay tuned for more video as the tour continues...

Dodd's Speech

Question and Answer Session, Part 1

Question and Answer Session, Part 2

Adam Burke of the Iowa Independent was at a round table with Senator Dodd in Davenport earlier this week. Burke reports that Dodd spoke about "many of the bills and legislation he has authored for families, women and women's health, children, child care, child protective services and disease research. He also touted his experience reaching across the aisle to enlist Republican lawmakers in his numerous legislative successes." Here's a video clip from the round table, in which Dodd shares his thoughts about the need for a new American patriotism.

In this video, also shot by Burke, Dodd talks about how he's gone beyond rhetoric and produced action for change and results on behalf of America's families. He also addresses the importance of reducing family violence and keeping families together.

You can see more videos and photos from the Davenport event at the Iowa Independent.

M.R. Field of Around Des Moines has a great write up of Senator Dodd's visit yesterday to the House of Mercy, a transitional housing provider for women receiving treatment for substance abuse, where he talked about his Women and Families plan, among other subjects.

Lynda Waddington posted this video from yesterday's Women and Family plan roll out. Eva Bunnell's daughter Jacinta was born severely disabled and Eva's prolonged fight to give her daughter the care she needed was one of major motivations for Senator Dodd to write the Family and Medical Leave Act. In the video Bunnell speaks about her experiences and how Senator Dodd helped her.

John Lynch of The Gazette has a great write up on Dodd's event in Cedar Rapids yesterday.

Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd called for a "new patriotism" that involves investing in people and making social programs like women's health, child care and education priorities and helps people be self-sufficient.

"We talk about patriotism and defending our country, which we understand," Dodd said after a round-table discussion of women's issues at the Jane Boyd Community House in Cedar Rapids on Monday.

"But patriotism also means investing in people here to make sure they have the opportunity to provide for their families, to be able to do all those things that we talk about as a part of an American dream in a sense," the Connecticut senator told about a dozen people who attended the discussion. "If you don't have the resources to do it, you're stuck because you don't have the financial capacity to do so, and it becomes very, very difficult."

Investing in domestic priorities is a security issue, too, Dodd said. Most of history's great civilizations didn't fall because of external attacks, but "because they weren't taking care of what was going on inside."

"You've got to be involved and engaged in what happens to people within our own country if we're going to remain strong and vibrant," Dodd told a Des Moines audience earlier in the day. "The outside forces will be there, we understand that. But ultimately our strength in facing those forces will be determined by how well we address the internal questions that we grapple with."

Those internal questions include tax fairness, which Dodd would address by expanding the $1,000 child tax deduction and the Earned Income Tax Credit for families with incomes too low to pay income taxes.