Chris Dodd in 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University, sponsored by PBS

On Corporations: Stop rewarding companies who create jobs offshore

On Crime: Mandatory minimum sentencing has been a disaster

On Crime: Eliminate distinction between crack cocaine & powder cocaine

A: I think the mandatory minimum sentencing has been a disaster. I'm a strong supporter of Charlie Rangel's efforts here to eliminate the distinction between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. That'll have a big difference in terms of who actually goes to jail in this country.

On Education: Shame of resegregation has been occurring in our schools

A: The shame of resegregation has been occurring for years in our country here. The reality that our public educational system is today a segregated system and that we have not taken enough leadership over the years to understand the great damage that has done to our country.

From the earliest education opportunity to the highest level of education opportunity, this is the key to equal access to our society. It is something that can never be taken away from you if you get it. To say today that you're going to exclude race as a means of allowing for the diversity in our communities is a major step backwards. [We need to] get back on the track to see to it that our country once again will identify with unity as a nation, blind, if you will, to the racial distinctions in our society. That's the only way we're going to deal with the new frontiers of the 21st century: the barrios, the ghettos, and the reservations of our society.

On Education: Highest priority is equal educational opportunity

I'm proud to have authored the first child care legislation in this country, to begin in the earliest days to make sure that parents have the assurance that there will be a quality place for their child to be, and an affordable place, an available place, and then to begin with early childhood education, to see to it that we'd have a good Head Start program.

I have walked the walk on these issues; I am committed to these issues. There's nothing that will be a higher priority to me as president than to see to it that America's children, from the earliest days of their arrival, certainly through the upper education branches of our educational system, have the equal opportunity. We have an obligation to guarantee an opportunity to that success. The key to that door is the education of the American child.

On Environment: Make Katrina recovery a symbol of what we can do right

KUCINICH: Absolutely. The aftermath underscores everything that's wrong in this country about race.

GRAVEL: Yes.

DODD: I would as well. New Orleans and Katrina have become a symbol of everything that went wrong with this administration's failure to respond to a people in need. I could think of no better way to have New Orleans and Katrina become a symbol of what we can do right in this country, by giving people the opportunity to come back and the support they will need to regain their lives. This is an American city. Anywhere else in America, we'd want to step up and see to it that people would get that help; this is the least we ought to be able to do to see to it they get their lives back together.

CLINTON: I have proposed a 10-point Gulf Coast Recovery Agenda, because even if we were to give people a right, there is nothing to return to.

On Foreign Policy: US unilateral action to end Darfur genocide

A: We've unfortunately, as a result of our conflict in Iraq, have lost our moral authority. And as a result of that, our ability to mobilize the world on issues like Darfur has been severely damaged. But the United States should be able to take some unilateral action here in providing the kind of protection where people are being slaughtered in that country; and in the meantime, get our military out of Iraq, as I've planned and offered to do, and thus regain that stature, which we need to be doing as a nation in this world and be able to build those coalitions that will respond to an issue like Darfur. But in the meantime, the United States ought to act.

On Free Trade: Prohibit Defense Department from outsourcing contracts

GRAVEL: Outsourcing is not the problem. What is the problem is our trade agreements that benefit the management and the shareholders.

DODD: I disagree. I think it's a huge issue here. The fact of the matter is we're exporting a lot of valuable jobs in this country & we shouldn't be doing it. I offered legislation that was passed that prohibited the Defense Department for outsourcing contracts, going off our shores here when many hard-working Americans ought to be allowed to do those jobs. I talked earlier about providing tax incentives. When you have people literally driving to the international airports to fly to some country to provide some funding for a local project in those nations, bypassing the very communities that could very well use those kind of jobs and economic growth, that is wrong. I will continue to do what I can to see to it that we limit outsourcing American jobs.

On Tax Reform: Make taxes fair but also pro-growth

A: I believe very strongly that our tax and fiscal policies ought to reflect our moral values and that our tax and fiscal policies ought to be fair, responsible, and pro-growth, as well. We live in a society where obviously it's going to be important to expand our economy so that jobs will be created, businesses can grow, people have an opportunity in this life.