‘Destined’ from birth, Dodd has designs on highest office

Anika Clark
Sentinel Staff

Christopher J. Dodd was born in 1944 with a natural veil covering his face.

Being born with a caul, or thin remnants of the fetal membrane, is a rare, but harmless, biological fluke.

But to the Dodd family, it meant something more.

“In our upbringing, which was Irish … it meant that this baby born with a caul was destined to greatness,” said Dodd’s older sister Martha Buonanno, 67, of Rhode Island.

Fast-forward 63 years, and Dodd, who represents Connecticut in the U.S. Senate, is running for president.

N.H. candidates get national help

Presidential hopefuls donate money to state races

Jake Berry
Sentinel Staff

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama donated more than $70,000 to New Hampshire political campaigns over recent months, including some to candidates who have endorsed his campaign, according to reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission.

The money comes from “Hopefund,” a political action committee Obama, an Illinois Democrat, has used to raise money for Democratic campaigns around the country.

Other candidates, including presidential challengers Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Hillary Clinton have also had political action committees targeting money toward other races.

The Washington Post reported recently that Biden also contributed money to some candidates who have endorsed his campaign. And before she declared for president, Clinton directed money to people who have since joined her campaign team, according to the Concord Monitor.

Obama’s committee had appeared dormant until recent months, when it distributed about $73,000 to New Hampshire candidates and committees about $180,000 to candidates and groups nationwide, the Post reported.

The recent contributions are nothing more than a continued attempt by the Obama campaign to further the Democratic cause, according to campaign spokesman Reid Cherlin.

A life spent pushing for change

Mother’s story led Clinton to advocacy

Anna Haigh
Sentinel Staff

Hillary Clinton can still remember, as a young girl, hearing the story of her mother’s early life for the first time.

Dorothy Howell Rodham was abandoned by her mother at 3 or 4 years old, forced to move in with unloving grandparents, and found a job at just 14 years old.

“Neither of her parents were responsible enough to take care of her,” Clinton said of her mother in an interview with The Sentinel.

Rodham traveled by train across the country to her grandparents’ house at 8 years old, her younger sister in tow.

“I remember learning as a little girl about this journey and just feeling my stomach knot,” Clinton said. “I just was very touched by my mother’s story and really the resilience and courage she showed in dealing with her own life.”

Clinton said it was her mother’s story that started her on the path toward becoming an advocate for children, women and families.

And it was during Clinton’s early time in Arkansas as a young lawyer and professor that she learned some important lessons through her court cases and personal life that led her to push for change.

Eventually, Clinton’s path led to the White House as husband Bill Clinton was elected the nation’s 42nd president in 1992 — and her own run for president.

Primary date elicits holiday cheer

Election officials wanted no part of December

Jake Berry
Sentinel Staff

Some Monadnock Region residents and local officials breathed a collective sigh of relief last week when state officials announced the Jan. 8 date for the New Hampshire presidential primary.

The chaotic race for the first-in-the-nation primary had left some in the region fearing a December election date. That could have put local election officials in a time bind, and some feared an election in the heart of holiday season would have resulted in a low turnout.

But the Jan. 8 date maintains New Hampshire’s status as the first-in-the-nation primary, and does so without competing against the holidays, some area residents said this week.

Obama agenda all about change

In Keene, candidate promises to reverse world’s perception of U.S.

Jake Berry
Sentinel Staff

The “totally unscientific, random, yet curiously interesting Presidential coffee bean poll” that sits near the counter at Brewbakers Cafe in downtown Keene looks as informal as its name suggests.

But the poll got the official backing of presidential hopeful Barack Obama when he stopped in Monday for a visit.

Obama, an Illinois Democrat, stopped into the Main Street coffee shop Monday afternoon and mingled with about 25 customers before casting a vote for himself in the cafe poll, in which Brewbakers patrons vote by placing a coffee bean below a photo of their preferred candidate.

As of 4 p.m., Obama led the poll with 22 votes, compared to five votes each for the second-leading candidates, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani.

“I guess I’ll just have to go with the front-runner,” Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, said with a deep laugh as he placed a coffee bean below his own picture. “That was a tough decision.”