Chris Dodd has this strange verbal tic, here

You've got to love Chris Dodd for his principled stands against the egregious faults of the Bush administration in its dismantling of Constitutional liberties. And there's something charming about his "dreaming the impossible dream."

But I think he's been a politician just a bit too long to communicate with normal people.

In a long, very long, interview on the News Hour, Dodd said all the right things (though Judy Woodruff really didn't press Dodd on his failure as a longstanding member of the banking committee to rein in the usurious practices of banks and credit card companies), but he talks like a politician. There's the endles cataloging of his good works. The sentences run together breathlessly lest he be interrupted. There's the questions he asks of himself, then answers. There are the indirect responses to direct questions. And then there's this strange verbal tic where he says "here" when some of us might say, "you know" or "ummm" or "dude" (listen to his speech, and you could replace anyone of these placeholders for his "here.") In the ten minutes he was interviewed, he said "here" a few dozen times.

This formalized political-talk has been the downfall of a few good men - Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Curry. They were all smart, informed and should have been elected. But in each case, though their opponent was not nearly as smart or informed, and in one case proven to be criminally culpable (John Rowland), and in the others, likely to be criminally culpable (George Bush), the less capable candidate won, because he was better at connecting.

It's a problem with American politics for sure, and with the American people, who seem incapable of leaping beyond voting for the best candidate in Dancing With the Stars or American Idol, to really understanding which candidate is best for their city, state and country.