Jackie Clegg Dodd Is at Home with Iowans

from National Public Radio

Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Democratic candidate and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, moved with her family to Iowa for the presidential campaign.

Clegg Dodd says that finding doctors, hair stylists, and schools for her two daughters has helped put her in touch with the concerns of Iowans.

"When you're living in a place, versus coming in and spending time in hotels, you actually get to know a little bit more about it," she tells Michele Norris. "There are some candidates who fly in and fly out again."

She says that it took a period of years — "when he was watching [the Bush administration] trample on the Constitution" — for her husband to decide to enter the presidential race.

"I really feel like he did this because he was deeply concerned about the direction of the country, both in foreign policy and in domestic policy."

She adds that when her husband first broached the idea of running for president, she thought he was going to propose that they have another baby.

"If he had said, 'Let's have another child,' I probably would have already had that child and the child would be weaned because this process is too long and there's too much money in it," she says.

Broadcast Dates

• All Things Considered, December 20, 2007