Not econmics, but not politics either - just funny

I didn't watch the Democratic YOUTUBE debate last night (I was too busy reading Harry Potter), but, in reading the transcript, I almost fell off my chair... This was the opening segment:

"ANDERSON COOPER, CNN host: Our first question tonight is Zach Kempf in Provo, Utah.

QUESTION: What's up? I'm running out of tape; I have to hurry.
So my question is: We have a bunch of leaders who can't seem to do their job. And we pick people based on the issues they that they represent, but then they get in power and they don't do anything about it anyway. You're going to spend this whole night talking about your views on issues, but the issues don't matter if when you get in power nothing's going to get done.
We have a Congress and a president with, like, a 30 percent approval rating, so clearly we don't think they're doing a good job. What's going to make you any more effectual, beyond all the platitudes and the stuff we're used to hearing? I mean, be honest with us. How are you going to be any different?

COOPER: Senator Dodd, you've been in Congress more than 30 years. Can you honestly say you're any different?

SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: Well, I think so.
First of all, thank you for inviting us here in The Citadel. It's great to be here at this wonderful college, university.
Certainly, I think it's a very important question one ought to be asking because, while hope and confidence and optimism are clearly very important, I think experience matters a great deal -- the experience people bring to their candidacy, the ideas, the bold ideas that they've championed over the years, whether or not they were successful in advancing those ideas and able to bring people together.
I'm very proud of the fact that, over my 26 years in the Senate, I've authored landmark legislation, the Family and Medical Leave Act, child care legislation, reform of financial institutions.
In every case, those are new ideas, bold ideas, that I campaigned on and then were able to achieve in the United States Senate by bringing Republicans as well as Democrats together around those issues.
That's what's missing, more than anything else, I think, right now, is the ability to bring people together to get the job done."

Just because you say something is a "new idea," doens't make it one. I love platitudes ;)