Chris Dodd in National Public Radio

On Education: Education is the heart of who we are

A: I would say the single largest issue in many ways for us to grapple with is education, because it’s the heart of who we are, both in terms of our governance and economic strength and the future. And convincing everyone in the country of the importance and the priority of that issue is something that I think is going to be critical for the success of our country in the 21st century.

On Environment: Country-of-origin & ingredient labeling for food imports

On Foreign Policy: Gold medal to Tibetan Dalai Lama sends strong message

A: Well, I think there’s an ongoing situation. I want to commend the people in Congress who just recently, when the Dalai Lama was here, presented him with a gold medal. We’ve raised the issue--not often enough--on Tibet and what’s happened with the almost genocidal behavior, when dealing with this remarkable culture that’s been under assault. And the idea that we’d recognize him and welcome him here as a religious leader in the world is exactly the kind of symbols we need to send--to make them recognize that the Dalai Lama is an international religious leader who’s worthy of recognition. And if they, as they apparently did, threaten to deny some ships to able to move in waters off China over that, they need to understand this isn’t going to change in a Democratic administration.

On Immigration: Hold employers accountable for knowingly hiring illegals

A: I think you’ve got an obligation here to go beyond that if you have any doubts or questions here. People who knowingly hire undocumented workers, I think, need to be held accountable to a far higher degree of penalty, civil and possibly criminal, if in fact it’s widespread, because these are the things that are going to slow down the 400,000 to 500,000 people who come here each year.