Des Moines Register
11-27-07
For Dodd and Biden, camaraderie survives competition
By LISA ROSSI and ABBY SIMONS • REGISTER STAFF WRITERS
Obviously, this is a little awkward, presidential candidate Chris Dodd says.
He's talking about the fact that he's competing against one of his friends, Joe
Biden, for the Democratic presidential nomination.
That's the friend with whom he shared a chartered plane from Washington, D.C., to an event in New Hampshire, the buddy for whom he videotaped himself singing "Happy Birthday" in Spanish earlier this month, the pal who's shared a spot with him at the bottom of polls of Iowa caucusgoers.
Both Dodd, a senator from Connecticut, and Biden, a senator from Delaware, are hoping to emerge and knock out a front-runner. But both are facing an increasing amount of questions about whether they are different enough for voters to tell them apart.
"If we were raised in the same neighborhood, we would have hung out together,"
Biden said in Des Moines last week, before adding that "Chris is much more
— in the good sense of the word
— 'Washington' than I am."
The two acknowledge they have some things in common. They both come from
Northeastern states, both have spent three decades in Congress, and both are the only men with white hair actively running for the Democratic nomination in
Iowa.
"They are soul brothers," said Steffen Schmidt, an Iowa State University political science professor.
"They are both complete, 100 percent political insiders."
The candidates' experience inside the Beltway is what knits them together but also distinguishes them.
Dodd points out that Biden voted for the bankruptcy reform legislation signed by
President Bush in 2005 that Dodd opposed, and that Biden has supported ongoing federal funding for the war in Iraq.
Biden took fifth place in the latest poll of Iowa Democratic caucusgoers with 4 percent. Dodd trailed him in seventh place with 1 percent, behind Ohio Rep.
Dennis Kucinich.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Nov. 14-18 surveyed 500 Iowans likely to vote in the Democratic caucuses.
Even when Dodd and Biden disagree, they temper their statements with less of the sharpness that has crept into Democratic exchanges on the campaign trail.
"Joe has taken the position
— and I respect it — that we have to continue the funding of the war," Dodd said in Des Moines on Monday.
Biden said he and Dodd are "old-school."
It's a group with a membership that's waning, Biden said, but includes stalwart senators like Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Republican Chuck
Hagel of Nebraska.
Biden talks about the time last April when he and Dodd waited in a South
Carolina airport terminal for a delayed flight.
They had just finished a debate and were rushing back to Washington, D.C., for an important Senate vote, Biden said.
They looked out the window to watch Sen. Hillary Clinton's jet take off. It was followed by Sen. Barack Obama's, and Gov. Bill Richardson's.
"We're thinking, 'Don't you think they'd invite us on the plane to get a ride back?' "
Biden said. "Chris looked at me, and I said, 'Chris, if I had that plane, do you think I'd leave this airport without you in the plane?' "
It's not criticism of other candidates, Biden said, it's just the way things work.
"That's what I mean about old-school," he said. "I would no more let someone sit in that airport if I knew it. And by the way, they probably didn't know. And we just sit there and laugh. Here we are, trying to make the same vote they're making, and we have to wait five hours to get on a plane."
The two have more than once shared a chartered jet on trips to Iowa to stay within campaign budgets that are minuscule compared to those of the frontrunners. It's a place where the two share their frustration.
Dodd recalls a time when he and Biden chartered a "little prop plane" from
Washington to New Hampshire, and saw planes used by other well-financed candidates that he described as "21st-century rocket ships."
"It's a pretty graphic example of what can happen," Dodd said. "If money and celebrity become the way in which we nominate people, then the country is in for some rough times."

Their similarities have, however, thrust them into the spotlight of late-night television.
A much-discussed recent "Saturday Night Live" skit, set at a fictional Halloween party at Hillary Clinton's house, included actors playing Dodd and Biden, dressed in identical SpongeBob SquarePants costumes. Asked in the skit if the two senators meant to dress alike, Biden's character wonders aloud whether the costume would have had more effect if only one of them were there.
"Yeah," Dodd's character adds. "We really ... cancel ... each other out."
The real-life Biden laughs, adding that he hasn't yet seen the skit, but has heard of it. He asserts that Dodd's presence in the race doesn't affect his performance.
"We truly are good friends, but we're awful different," Biden said. "The way I look at the race is, I don't think I win or lose based upon the other people in the race. I think I win or lose based upon me in the race."
There could be another problem when it comes to recognition of the candidates
— or the lack thereof — across Iowa and the rest of the nation, said George
Edwards, a professor of political science at Texas A&M University.
Both candidates simply may be too "grown-up."
"It's difficult to reach people sometimes in that way," Edwards said. "I don't know of a silver-bullet answer, but I think what it is they share is what most senators share, and that is just a lack of sex appeal."
Young voters echo that concern.
"I would say they are the stereotypical politician, the old man — kind of a little dull," said Drake University sophomore Stacey Wilson, 19.
Kathy Elsner, a dentist in Des Moines who supports Dodd, said voters should look seriously at the people running for president, not just their campaigning style.
"The best candidate isn't necessarily the best president, and people need to realize that," she said. "You're dealing with the most important job in the world.
Don't you think we should see past somebody that's glitz and glamour, and really look at somebody that's had experience?"