At the launch of his “Caucus For Results” bus tour, the Connecticut senator told a crowd at his Iowa campaign headquarters that “it’s not just enough sitting on the sidelines and watching your husband deal with problems over the years,” to argue that his 26 years in the Senate are better suited to bring people together and deal with unexpected events like the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Dodd said the New York senator’s claim that her time as First Lady was experience would be like his wife Jackie taking credit for his Family Medical Leave Act, adding, “The experience of having witnessed history is not the same as having helped create it.”
Leaving aside the merit of this criticism, he is making it. Against a fellow senator from a neighboring state and a likely (though far from certain) nominee.
I guess given this, and everything else he's done, it's hard to conclude anything other than Dodd is simply playing to win. That doesn't mean he will win, or even get close, but it does mean he isn't thinking about how to be spoiler for candidate X against Y.
Anyway, maybe I'm wrong. And, frankly, I don't even care all that much. But whenever longer shot candidates run you wonder what their angle is and from what I've been able to see Dodd hasn't had one.