When Dodd said he was planning a stealth campaign, he wasn’t kidding. Since last Friday’s rally, the weekend news and blog chatter has been all about everyone else. On the Democratic side, it didn’t help that Hillary Clinton announced she was in on Saturday. Or that Bill Richardson announced that he was in on Sunday. Or that Sam Brownback announced he was in on Saturday on the Republican side.

The wires and presidential election alert feeds were all buzzing about the rest of the field, dominated by news spin on either Clinton or Richardson. So much for the start power of Obama, Edwards and Giuliani.

Dodd spent the weekend in New Hampshire. Coverage did appear in the local paperes, including The Concord Monitor:

In his first New Hampshire town hall meeting as a presidential candidate, Sen. Chris Dodd eschewed the traditional stump speech in favor of listening.

“Voters don’t ask politicians, ‘Who are you?’ ” Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, told a crowd in Dover yesterday. “They ask, ‘Do you know who I am?’ ”

…”I’m proud to be from the Northeast, and I’m proud to be an advocate of progressive politics,” Dodd replied. He added that voters will see past labels and look at his qualifications - 30 years in Congress, service in the Peace Corps and a litany of legislative accomplishments.

….”We’ve been on six years of on-the-job training and look where we are,” he said, referring to Bush’s term in office.

“How are we losing a public relations battle with Hugo Chavez?” he asked later.

…

One voter asked Dodd whether he’d support a resolution that would cut off funding for American troops in Iraq. Another asked what he would do to stop the Bush administration from starting a war in Iran.

On Iraq, Dodd said he would introduce legislation that would cap the number of American troops, which would do more than any nonbinding resolution.

“I think we’ve got to do more than that,” he said.

He also called his vote for authorizing the president to go to war in Iraq a mistake. If Bush wants to start a war in Iran, he should ask Congress first, Dodd said.

“We need a debate, a new authorization,” he said.

Dodd said he would consider talking to U.S. enemies, such as Syria and Iran, before resorting to force.

“We Democrats cannot continue to be part of the chorus that says diplomacy is a sign of weakness,” said Dodd, whose brother was a diplomat and whose father was a prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials.

Jen Albergehene, of Dover, said she found Dodd likeable and bright, but said he needs to be more direct and concise with his responses. He spent nearly 10 minutes answering the question about Iraq.

“My philosophy is to ask the hardest question,” she said. New Hampshire “is a training ground. If you don’t get it here, you’re not going to make it nationally.”

Yesterday, Dodd had breakfast in Nashua with Democratic activists, went to Hooksett for a house party and spoke at a Deerfield restaurant. He was scheduled to speak last night in Henniker. He has plans to speak today in Charlestown, Hanover and Cornish.

Ken Roos, an officer for the State Employees Association, asked Dodd in Hooksett what he would say in his inaugural speech in 2009.

“I’m tired of small-bore politics, where you deal only at the edges,” Dodd said.

….”He really has a lot of things going for him - experience, he is personable, a good speaker, affable, sense of humor,” said Patton. “Having said that, there are others that have many things going for them.”

Locally things did not go much better for Dodd. The Courant and The Day managed a story about Dodd after the rally. The blogs were just mostly silent except for a brief spurt of chatter about his move to file paperwork that indicates he is not running for Senate in 2010, largely a move to gain access to campaign funds. Or in the case of MyLeftNutmeg, other than the rally, the chatter there was still fueled by Lieberman.

Dodd will have to do better.