Dodd Says Long Democratic Contest Is Bad for Party
WASHINGTON — Sen. Christopher Dodd says the longer the bitter Democratic presidential nomination fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton goes on, the harder it will be for the party to win this fall.
“Winning an election is literally threading a needle — you need everything going right for you,” Dodd, D-Conn., said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Dodd, who dropped his own presidential bid after a poor showing in the leadoff Iowa caucuses earlier this year, is backing Obama.
He said it would be relatively easy for political professionals such as the candidates and their staffs to put aside their differences for the general election fight against Republican John McCain. But unifying passionate Obama and Clinton supporters across the country could be difficult.
“The problem as this thing goes further down the pike is that your supporters, the intensity, increases,” Dodd said. “Your loyalty deepens. Your feelings about the other side deepen … The question is really whether these other folks out there, who have really invested a great deal of their lives in this effort for the last two years, are going to be willing to sort of pat each other on the back and go charging off for eight weeks.”
Allowing the nomination fight to continue until the party’s convention, which begins Aug. 25 in Denver, could invite disaster for Democrats, Dodd added.
“I can’t imagine this party will allow itself to go into the end of August undecided,” he said. “I can’t think of anything worse we could do to the nominee than to give him or her a divided convention with eight weeks to go in a national election in a divided country. So, I’m sort of dazzled by the fact that this is ongoing.”
Senator Dodd,
I’m sort of dazzled by the fact you endorsed Sen. Obama and I am looking forward to never supporting your future re-election efforts EVER!
Patty Ulatowski
Monroe, CT
Kentucky Voter,
If you live in Kentucky, USA, then you have no basis for saying that people in this country are denied the right to vote. EVERY ELIGIBLE person who will register and keep their address information current has the right to vote. I’ve voted every year since I became eligible in 1974. It is not denying people a vote if we ask for photo ID, verification of eligibility, verification of address or anything else. If you’re eligible to vote, you should be able to prove it. If you can’t prove it, don’t try to vote. If you haven’t taken the simple steps to register, don’t try to vote and then act like you’re being denied your right to vote. If you’re a felon, an illegal alien (I refuse to call them immigrants), or haven’t registered to vote, you would not, and should not be allowed to vote. All that being said, I really don’t know what your comments had to do with this story.
It’s been said over and over we need to tell these high ranking dems that we are your base support and the idea to tell 20% of these United States that you have it decided so don’t bother voting is, well, bothersome! In the general election the ads will read “Why vote Democratic-You DON’T COUNT Anyway!” And we wonder why certain segments of our party are considered Elitists. Go figure!