SPECIAL CONVENTION COVERAGE -- Chris Dodd Up Close and Personal

Roaring applause echoes through the hall as Senator Barack Obama exits the convention, over 40 cameras trained on him and his entourage. Looking at the schedule, I see one of my favorites listed next -- Senate Veteran Chris Dodd.

Dodd enters after an introductory speech from Art Torres, and as I turn to look at the press riser, I see approximately three cameras trained on the 30+ year Senate veteran.

Seeing this makes me wonder how such a well-qualified candidate, and well-respected member of the Senate can be so easily dismissed compared with what is inarguably a more junior slate. How does a thoughtful candidate ever get the attention or exposure necessary to become 'viable' or [shudder] 'electable'? How can you become viable if the cameras have left before you’ve even spoke? And to what degree is our sense of presidential viability shaped by the ways we expect them to communicate?

Case in point: today at a very intimate press event, Dodd was impressive -- personable, earnest, and wielded the full intellectual heft of a policy heavyweight. His biography is powerful, both in experience and in demonstration of character.

Frankly though, he's rather boring as a public speaker. On the podium he just didn't excite the same way other candidates did. But why are we so obsessed with the podium? And how useful of a qualification is it that the leader of the free world be a great orator?

Dodd made a very compelling, very incorrect point during the press event -- that he believes people may not directly ask it, but the first thing a voter wants to know about politicians is whether they're listening to their constituents. And Chris Dodd is an amazingly good listener, and comes across as a genuinely compassionate man.

 If only he were better at talking *at* people.

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