May 26 (Bloomberg) -- I caught up with Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who announced Monday that he's doing everything necessary to ``seek the presidency in 2008,'' early yesterday morning as he was convincing his 4-year-old, Grace, that she had to wash her hair.

I asked how you could run for president with two little children. ``There's never a good time but at this age, Jackie (his wife) and I can bring them along,'' he said. ``It's easier than with teenagers.''

Of the 11 people considering a presidential bid in 2008, Dodd has one great advantage: He doesn't have to position -- or reposition himself -- each morning.

While many in his party are straining to color themselves red, wishing to be reborn in a border state, Dodd's a traditional Democrat from way north of the Mason-Dixon line and happy about it. ``I'm a Sam Rayburn Democrat -- without prefix, suffix, or apology,'' Dodd said, recalling that former Senator Dale Bumpers forgave him for being a ``a northerner because he had a southern sense of humor.''

In the end, geography is insignificant, Dodd says, if you can ``connect with people, convince them you can do something about their problems because the job you've done prepares you for the one you're seeking.''

Like JFK, Bill

Affable and Irish, Dodd comes closest of anyone in the field to the raw political talent of a JFK or Bill Clinton. Dodd, who turns 62 tomorrow, looks like a white-haired lion out of ``Advise and Consent,'' not a Ken doll of a hundred focus groups.

One of six lawmakers who are children of former senators, Dodd formed his alliances early and kept them for life, winning his first race in 1974 at age 30. He is one of the most-popular people in Washington. His oldest friends are his best friends. He kept vigil for weeks at the deathbed of a prep-school friend we shared.

He never forgets a favor or fails to do one. If he's promised to show up at an event, he won't disappoint, even if a better invitation, or a 102-degree fever, comes along.

He's friends with the Clintons (in 2004, Hillary said he'd be the best candidate). Both wished him well when he called to say he was entering the race.

Lamar's Advice

He also heard from a lot of friends on the other side of the aisle. Inside an increasingly rancorous chamber, he's the guy with the magnanimous personality, one of the few left who can fight hard by day and go out for a beer at night. One of the first to stop by was Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, who brought along a copy of his book of 311 rules for running for president, inscribed ``Don't wear a plaid shirt when you announce.''

Many of Dodd's accomplishment are with ideological opposites. He joined with Senator Orrin Hatch to get child-care grants passed, with Senator Kit Bond on the Family and Medical Leave Act, with Senator Mitch McConnell on electoral reform after the Florida debacle. Coming from a big insurance state, it was easy for him to join Republicans in limiting class-action law suits.

On the Foreign Relations Committee, he's been an important player in Latin American affairs (he speaks fluent Spanish). And unlike Senator John Kerry, when asked if he would have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq knowing what he knows now, Dodd gives a resounding ``no.''

Way Behind

Like everyone else, he starts out way behind presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton, who has $20 million. But surprising things happen in politics. Sure winners turn out not to be (Senator Ted Kennedy). Tragedies intervene (Senator Bobby Kennedy.) Presidents drop out (LBJ). Crackpots drop in (Ross Perot).

Front-running New York Governor Mario Cuomo changed his mind. Front-running New York Senator Clinton might change hers.

Even if she doesn't, my bet is on Dodd to claim the un- Hillary spot. His entry puts the most spontaneous of politicians next to the least, and Dodd is one of the few who can still belt out an optimistic and energizing stump speech. He has the greatest advantage you can have in politics: He's a natural who doesn't need handlers to position him. He would never try to appeal to conservatives by introducing a bill that would make flag-burning illegal, as Senator Clinton has done.

Although he had a lively bachelor existence before marrying in 1999, Dodd says ``people are less concerned about what's gone on in your life than what's going on in theirs.''

Separate Lives

Hillary would likely sign on to that. Ironically, while her husband's unfaithfulness launched her Senate career, her presidential one would be doomed by a recurrence. A front-page story in Tuesday's New York Times was either Times-speak for ``Bill is up to his old tricks'' or a strategic attempt on the Clintons' part to get the issue out there early. Friends of the pair said all the right things to inoculate them against criticism that they live separate lives. Staff was at the ready with stats on time spent together, including the nugget that while they saw each other only once in February, it was Valentine's Day.

Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey Senator and famed New York Knick, once said that in politics as in basketball, there's nothing more important than a sense of where you are. Unless it's Dodd's sense of who you are.

(Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Margaret Carlson in Washington at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 26, 2006 00:03 EDT