Friday night is not usually a night politicians like to pick for high profile announcements, so it’s somewhat exciting to report that the Chris Dodd rally for ‘08 turned out the veritable who’s who of Connecticut Democrats. And why not, with the strong election wins of November still fresh in everyone’s minds, this was a night to celebrate the diversity of the party and set the stage for the presidential race.

All the usual suspects were there, Rosa Delauro introduced Dodd to the crowd, Richard Blumenthal darted through shaking hands, and noted were John Larsen, Chris Murphy, Susan Bysiewicz, Nancy Wyman, Denise Napier and Nancy Dinardo.

George Jepsen floated about, out of the spotlight with the defeat of his canidate and burned bridges galore. But this was not the night to continue the rift between the vocal anti-war lefties, as Genghis Conn so aptly attempted in a recent post. This was a night to celebrate a man willing to take a real stand, not a politician’s stance, on what it means to be president of the United States. And Dodd delivered on a simply spoken message that it was time for a leader that was willing to restore the prestige and the ideals that makes the United States of America the best country in the world. He didn’t don a special outfit to make this pledge, nor did he speak about long lists of wonkish agenda items.

Dodd touched on two themes, that should resonate well beyond the borders of Connecticut. The first, that he stood on the same ground that the framers of our Constitution stood before him, hundreds of years ago, with the same intent to preserver and protect the rights of all Americans from the tyranny of those who choose to subject whim over reason. The second, that he did not want to be a part of a legacy that left the country worse off than when the country he inherited from previous generations.

All the political equations that get factored into speeches, clearly did not make into Dodd’s speech. It wasn’t hard to imagine him sitting a desk somewhere, writing from his heart and unwillinging to allow himself to posture towards any specific audience but all Americans.

And maybe, just maybe, the rifts and valleys of the Connecticut Democrats will unite to get behind a message of hope and determination that. Maybe experience will matter, and substance over style will mean something. Maybe its time the country experience some real Yankee ingenuity.