ANDERSON COOPER: 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?
SENATOR 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.
COOPER: But if someone really wants a change, are you the guy to give it to them?
DODD: Well, I think they ought to look back. Speeches are easy to make and rhetoric is easy to expose here. But I think the idea of looking back and saying, "What have you done?" --if you want to get a good idea of where someone is going to lead or how they're going to lead, I think it's very appropriate to say, "What have you done? Show me. Demonstrate to me the ability to get these things done that you've championed in the past."
COOPER: Senator Obama, your supporters say you are different. Your critics say you're inexperienced. You're a first-term senator.
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think the questioner hit the nail on the head. As I travel around the country, people have an urgent desire for change in Washington. And we are not going to fix health care, we're not going to fix energy, we are not going to do anything about our education system unless we change how business is done in Washington.
Now, part of that is bringing people together, as Chris said. But part of it is also overcoming special interests and lobbyists who are writing legislation that's critical to the American people. And one of the things I bring is a perspective as a community organizer, as a state legislator, as well as a U.S. senator, that says: Washington has to change.
COOPER: A lot of people say -- Congressman Kucinich, your supporters certainly say you are different. Even your critics would certainly say you are different. Here's a direct question for you.
DAVIS FLEETWOOD: Hello. My name is Davis Fleetwood. I'm from Groton, Massachusetts. My question is for Dennis Kucinich. After watching the first several debates, which seemed more like conversations than actually debates, we're all clear out here that you Democrats are united. We get it.
But we have a very important decision to make coming up very soon, and Americans desperate for a change need to know: Congressman Kucinich, how would America be better off with you as president than we would be if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama became president?
COOPER: What do you have that Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not have?
REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, first of all, a clear record as having not only opposed the war from the very beginning -- the only one of the stage that actually voted against the war, and also the only one on the stage who voted against funding the war 100 percent of the time.