Chris Dodd is a five-term United States Senator who has dedicated his life to serving the American people.  He comes from a family of educators and public servants.  Inspired by President Roosevelt, his father, Thomas Dodd, joined the New Deal and then FDR's Justice Department, prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg, and helped lead the fight for civil rights as a Senator from Connecticut.  Inspired by President Kennedy, Chris Dodd joined the Peace Corps in 1966 and served for two years working in a rural village in the Dominican Republic, where he became fluent in Spanish.  Dodd was elected to the House of Representatives in 1974 and the Senate in 1980, where he has established an extraordinary record of legislative accomplishment.  He and his wife Jackie have two young children, Grace, age 5, and Christina, who is 22 months old.

His life and tenure of service make him the right person at the right time to lead America in 2008 because:

He is likeable and can inspire people.  Read stories about Senator Chris Dodd, and you come across phrases that Democratic voters haven't seen in some time.  Bill Curry of the Hartford Courant calls him "shrewd, eloquent and instantly likeable," with "a feel for issues and people."  Time columnist Margaret Carlson agrees that "he's the guy with the magnanimous personality," the "closest of anyone in the field to the raw political talent of JFK or Bill Clinton," and the candidate with "one great advantage: he doesn't have to position - or reposition himself - each morning."  Former Senator Dale Bumpers even calls him a northerner with "a southern sense of humor."

He is a leader on children and families.  Long before children's issues were a priority in America, Dodd wrote and passed the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Child Care and Development Block Grant program.  His work has led him to be known as the "Children's Senator," and was honored as the "Head Start Senator of the Decade" for his work on education.  Nobody understands the needs of America's families better.

He was a leader on national security before 9/11.  Even before the 9/11 attacks, Dodd was working to protect the safety of American families by writing and passing the FIRE Act, which provides the largest source of federal funding to communities to train and equip their firefighters; and has worked for a decade to create a strong military for the 21st Century.  Thanks to Dodd's leadership, in 2006, the military received the funding it needed to begin to restock its war-battered fleet of tanks, helicopters, and trucks.

He's one of America's foremost authorities on foreign affairs.  As the number two Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chris Dodd has played a central role in nearly every foreign policy debate over the past 25 years.  He has worked with six Presidents and many of to day's most important world figures.  In the past two years alone, he has been to Iraq three times, and met with the leaders of Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority, among many others.

He understands the needs of business.  As a member, and now chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd has worked with America's business community for two decades to improve our competitiveness and to create jobs while building investor confidence and improving consumer protections.

He's made a career by rising above partisan gridlock to get things done.  Some of Dodd's most impressive legislative accomplishments have come in partnership with Republicans, working with Senator Orrin Hatch to pass child care grants, Senator Mitch McConnell on electoral reform, Senator Kit Bond on Family and Medical Leave, among others.

He knows how to win.  Chris Dodd has never lost an election in which his name has appeared on the ballot.  He has been re-elected to the United States Senate four times with support from both Democrats and Republicans.  As former co-chairman of the Democratic Party, he helped re-elect America's last Democratic President only two years after Democrats suffered significant losses in the 1994 election.

Our America is at grave risk, facing problems that threaten our leadership, security, and Americans' hopes for a better life.  Our country craves leadership that will create bold solutions to tackle the urgent problems we face.

Chris Dodd will provide this leadership.  As his record demonstrates, he has the knowledge, experience, and ability to work across party lines to solve problems for the American people.  He has spent his entire career working to turn Democratic principles into American policies that have strengthened our families, and our nation.

,/' The Family and Medical Leave Act.  An estimated 50 million workers have been able to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave when they were ill or needed to care for a new child or a sick family member because of Chris Dodd's historic Family Medical Leave Act.

,/' Head Start.  Millions of children start school ready to learn everyday because of Chris Dodd's tireless effort to improve the availability, affordability, and quality of Head Start.  As a result of his efforts, he was honored as the "Head Start Senator of the Decade" by the National Head Start Association.

,/' Corporate Accountability.  Corporate leaders are now more accountable to the public and their shareholders because Chris Dodd helped Write the Sarbanes-Oxley act to better protect investors from accounting and corporate governance failures, like the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

,/' Child Care.  Each year, billions of dollars in federal aid is helping families cope with the high cost of child care because of the Child Care and Development Block Grant program that Chris Dodd created.

,/' Health Care.  Millions of low-income children throughout America now have health care coverage because Chris Dodd worked with Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to create the landmark Children's Health Insurance Program.

,/' Election Reform.  Landmark election reform legislation - the "Help America Vote Act" - was passed by Congress and signed into law after the controversial 2000 election.  This act, which was authored by Dodd, has been called the most important voting rights legislation since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

,/' Homeland Security.  Nearly 30,000 communities across the country have received more than $2.5 billion in federal assistance to hire, train, and equip firefighters because of the FIRE and SAFER Acts that Chris Dodd Wrote.

,/' National Security.  Because of Dodd's leadership, the Pentagon was required to reimburse military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan for the critical health and safety gear, such as body armor, that they and their families purchased - out of their own pockets.

,/' Fiscal Discipline.  More than 20 years ago, the Senate voted on a Dodd "pay as you go" budget plan to freeze federal spending and require that spending increases be paid for before enacted.