Transcript: George Stephanopoulos and Sen. Chris Dodd

— -- We were back on the trail this week, this time in New Hampshire with Democrat Chris Dodd and his wife, Jackie.

A former Peace Corps volunteer, Dodd has spent the last 25 years as senator from Connecticut.

"We need an American president who's ready to lead from day one. There will not be a single day, not a single moment for on-the-job training," he has said.

That experience is what Dodd is selling. And since he can't match the cash or crowds of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, he is counting on old-fashioned, kitchen-table campaigning.

Here in Nashua on Friday, the topic was energy independence, and Dodd's call for a new corporate tax on carbon. At Southern New Hampshire University later that day, we continued the conversation.

George Stephanopoulos: This issue of the corporate carbon tax that you called for kept coming up over the course of the hour. Are you worried, when you talk about taxes, that you're leading with your chin?

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.: Well, sure, I've thought about that. I mean, it would be foolish to say otherwise.

But I don't think you can have a candid conversation about global warming -- everyone gives this speech about how we want renewable technologies and conservation, efficiency, global warming, all of these goals that we all talk about.

Stephanopoulos: Now, Mr. and Mrs. Candidate, tell me how you get there? How do you get this done?

And if you're not willing to be honest about the answer of how you get there, then all the rhetoric about what you're trying to achieve seems rather hollow to me and it does to a lot of people. None of the other Democrats have called for one.

C. Dodd: No, I have, but I don't know how to do this.

As long as you have that great elasticity in price of fossil fuels, but you can control it, that they can drop that price, because we've seen them do this, making the alternatives less competitive financially, then it's always going to be people will opt for the cheaper -- the cheaper product, even though, I think, most people would prefer to use the more -- the safer, the cleaner technology and energy.

Stephanopoulos: The country has been consumed this week by the tragedy at Virginia Tech. And I was struck by the cover of Time magazine -- it came out today -- "Trying to Make Sense of a Massacre." How do you make sense of this?

Jackie Dodd: I think it's all on a very personal level. But, you know, I don't have the experience in any kind of police work or anything.

But I watched the events unfold and it was unbelievable to me that at some point someone didn't pick up on this eventuality and do something about it. And there are even people who had tried.

But right now, my heart and in my prayers for them -- the families and the friends and really the nation is at a time of sorrow right now, that we can't allow our children to go to college and have them in a safe place.

And so hopefully the lesson that will come from this is one of those learning moments that, as a mother of little children, I'm always looking for. Hopefully the lesson is going to be that we need to start the dialogue earlier and we need to start solving the problems before they become so enormous.

Stephanopoulos: The worst campus massacre before Virginia Tech was back in the University of Texas in 1966. And the day after that massacre, your father, Senator Thomas Dodd, called for new gun laws.

[INSERT SEN THOMAS DODD]Guns are not play things. I say it's insane for our society to permit this situation to continue.

Stephanopoulos: Will you do the same thing now?

C. Dodd: Well, he was a pioneer in this area. In fact, he started earlier than that. It took the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy before he was able to pass something called the Omnibus Crime Bill and the Safe Streets Act.

And I've been a strong supporter of gun safety issues. And certainly, putting aside the tragedy at Virginia State -- Virginia Tech, excuse me -- this is an issue that should be something we're willing to talk about in this country.