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BAYH BAYH, BAYH.
The veepstakes gossip machine is a fickle creature, and this weekend it turned its eyes to Indiana Senator Evan Bayh. Bayh is "almost certainly being vetted", according to Marc Ambinder, and, despite having endorsed Hillary Clinton in the primaries, he told the National Journal that he and Obama,
"know each other, we're friends, we're about the same age, we both have young kids, we both like sports, we made that trip to Iraq [in 2006]. ... We're the same generation, so we have a comfort level, but I don't want to overstate any of that. I like him, I hope he likes me."On paper, Bayh looks great. He's a massively popular former two-term governor of a deep-red state that Obama has a serious chance to turn blue. He was reelected in 2004 by a 25 point margin when Bush won the state by 20. At 52, he's more than young enough to succeed Obama in 2016, and yet has enough years in public office to help assuage the "experience" critique.
But much like another red-state veep prospect with a pun-friendly last name, Bayh is well to the right of both Obama and the party at large. He not only voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002, he was an honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Liberate Iraq, along with Joe Lieberman and John McCain. If those associates weren't bad enough, the group's non-Senatorial members included Bill Kristol, James Woolsey, and McCain foreign policy guru Randy Scheunemann. Even in this Congress, Bayh voted for the relatively weak Levin amendment calling for redeployment but against the more hard-hitting Feingold amendment, which Obama and Clinton both supported.
Going through the rest of his voting record, it's clear that Bayh sticks out like a sore thumb in the Democratic caucus. He has a 50% NARAL rating, he voted for a flag-burning amendment and bankruptcy reform, he's "undecided" on a school prayer amendment, he supports John McCain's proposal to boot Russia from the G8, and he supported the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that Obama made a key part of his critique of Clinton.
If Obama wants to alienate progressives while reinforcing the media narratives that he's "flip-flopping" and "moving toward the center", then Bayh is a good pick. If he wants to win and work toward liberal policy goals while in office, I suggest he look elsewhere.
--Dylan Matthews
COMMENTS (9)
This is going to sound stupid and naive, but how much of this is who he is, and how much of this is the state he represents? I'm not a fan of him or his record, but it's possible that Obama sees a more underlying progressive inclination in him that's been hindered by his constituency.
Posted by: dbt | July 21, 2008 1:09 PM
... to extrapolate a little bit, didn't Al Gore have to deal with some not-pro-choice issues in '92 or '88? I admit I'm too young to remember contemporaneous discussions.
Posted by: dbtq | July 21, 2008 1:25 PM
Hillary Clinton voted to outlaw flag burning, voted in favor of Kyl-Lieberman, and voted to authorize the Iraq war. So does that rule her out as VP?
I'm not for her, believe me, just addressing the logic here .. .
Posted by: cervantes | July 21, 2008 1:32 PM
If Sen. Obama chooses Evan Bayh, the ticket carries Indiana. Game. Set. Match. (Oh, for the record, Sen. Bayh's last opponent derided him as an out-of-touch "Hillary Clinton liberal." Sen. Bayh won by 25 points on the same day Bush carried Indiana by 20. Go figure!)
Posted by: Hoosier Democrat | July 21, 2008 1:44 PM
Bayh seems more like a pundit favorite than a real candidate. Indiana is much unlike its neighbors (more southern than Ohio, Illinois or Michigan; more white and Republican than Kentucky) and is not a major trove of electoral votes. There's really no reason to pick him; there are more attractive ways for Obama to gain some blue dog-ish support if that's the plan.
Posted by: Rich | July 21, 2008 1:56 PM
He has a 50% NARAL rating
Dylan, buddy, you're just flat-out wrong about this.
Now, you were to say that several years ago, on the basis of his votes in a particular year, NARAL gave Evan Bayh a 50% rating, you would be correct. Further, let's be open and honest, the vote NARAL dinged Bayh for was on "partial-birth abortion" which is a position Obama himself has at least rhetorically sympathized with.
Posted by: Robert Paulson | July 21, 2008 2:40 PM
Gotta win the election before he can "...work toward liberal policy goals."
Posted by: Ed Whitson | July 21, 2008 2:52 PM
If "Having Nunn of It" ends up having a Bayh-centric sequel, I want it on record that I came up with "Say GoodBayh" first.
Posted by: Ned | July 21, 2008 5:56 PM
1. When fill folks realize Obama is not a died in the wool liberal but someone looking to compromise when it makes sense. Pragmatism.
2. Bayh is a lot more progressive than he seems. He voted against both the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, something that was incredibly risky politically for a red-state Democrat. He is also a leader on gay rights (check his cosponsorships of key gay rights legislation). He has also been pro-union, consistently fought for more money for education as well as tax relief for lower and middle income Americans.
Obama could do a lot worse...
Posted by: Jonathan Stahler | July 21, 2008 11:30 PM