VP Evan Bayh, a Lurch Toward the Mediocre Middle
Rumors are very, VERY strong that quite soon, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana will be named as Barack Obama's vice-presidential running mate.
(Adding fuel to the burning rumors is this url, ObamaBayh08.com, which redirects to the Democratic party website!)
If that's the case, I'm decidedly underwhelmed. If true, count me as unimpressed with Barack Obama's first major decision as the Democratic party's '08 presidential nominee.
An Obama decision to select Bayh for his running mate would be purely political in nature, aimed at selecting a pleasant, safe white man from the heartland sure to offend no one... but guaranteed to contribute neither personality nor originality, and certainly no principled passion or bold leadership, to the Democratic ticket.
Aimed at Pleasing Hillary Clinton
A decision to select Bayh would also illustrate the extraordinary lengths that Barack Obama feels he must traverse to please Hillary Clinton.
For close to a decade, Evan Bayh has been Hillary Clinton's credible go-to shadow... always by her side, always agreeing, always smiling, always silent. At times, I half-expect to see Bayh carrying Hillary's luggage or fetching her skinny frappuccino.
From the Clinton camp's perspective, selecting the Clinton-malleable Evan Bayh as vice president would be the next best thing to selecting Hillary herself. Clinton-loyalist Bayh owes his political visibility to Bill and Hill. And Bill and Hill aren't shy about expecting payback...
Lurching Toward the Mediocre Middle
A decision to select Evan Bayh would be a giant lurch toward the mediocre middle. Yes, Bayh served admirably for two terms as Indiana governor, but since he hooked up in the 1990s as a Clinton surrogate, his political wisdom and courage has evaporated.
From 2001-2005, he chaired the Clinton-dominated Democratic Leadership Council, a pro-business, pro-free trade, mildly anti-environmental organization populated by the most centrist Democrats. Bayh voted for the Iraq War in 2002, for the Patriot Act in 2001, and voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act in 2006.
Just about the only evidence of progressive vision in his Senate record are his smart votes against confirming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
"Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better?"
Today, New York Times columnist David Brooks asks:
"Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain... ? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?"
Here's your answer, Mr. Brooks: since Barack Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination with bold ideas, soaring rhetoric and a dazzling call for change from the politics of old, his brilliant, seemingly sincere campaign has been trampled under his rush for the safe middle.
Even before the Democratic convention, Barack Obama has evolved into a candidate who never would have won the party nomination: a boring middle-grounder who routinely sacrifices principle for power and political expediency.
Thus far, the only thing that's changed since Obama bested Hillary Clinton for the nomination is the Obama campaign. Barack Obama's clarion primary-season call for change has all but disappeared from his message, along with the freshness of his campaign.
Obama's Post-Primary Snore Factor: Losing Young Voters
What's left is... well, boring. Often irrelevant to Democrats who supported him in the primary. And predictably unappealing to under-40 voters, who were attracted to Obama by his exciting call for change from the same old politics.
The selection of lackluster, pro-status quo Evan Bayh would add greatly to Obama's post-primary snore factor, especially in contrast to crisp, creative, sharp-spoken Mitt Romney, expected running mate for Republican John McCain.
Selecting Evan Bayh as vice-president would be a lurch toward the unelectable mediocre middle.
It would be an unmistakable move toward losing the rare political opportunity for the progressive agenda, so winsomely enunciated by Obama during the primaries, to be embraced by the American people.
Each day, as Obama compromises more and more of his original promise, my heart breaks as he blithely gives away his electoral advantages, and he lurches toward ever-more-possible November defeat.
I'm still hoping the rumor is untrue.
(Photo taken of May 5, 2008 as Sen. Clinton and Sen. Bayh campaign together just ahead of the Indiana And North Carolina primaries : Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Comments
I hate to say it, but go figure. Obama’s middle-lurching is totally unsurprising and totally expected. And, if he manages to bore the college aged kids that got him the nomination in the first place, that will be unsurprising, too. It’s been one of my beefs with him from the beginning, that he’d get the nomination secured thanks to a group of people who just don’t turn out to vote in the generals. I hope I’m wrong. I’m still excited about the possibility of having someone who thinks like that in the white house. But, he continues, as he has from the very beginning, to underwhelm me with his actual campaign performance.
That said, though, I still find it kind of hard to believe that any conservative ticket could possible win in November. Aren’t we as a country just READY to move on? I would really, really like to think so.
Of course Obama would lurch towards the middle in the general election. When one actually has a chance of becoming president, the reality of the job starts to set in.
As for him electing a boring crony, as opposed to a principled politician, I can only say this is yet another broken promise from Obama (”I don’t want yes-men in my cabinet”).
Safe? Yes. Boring? Yes. The right choice? Probably. Like it or not, it’s probably a wise choice by Obama. He already has the the far-left vote. Vice presidents are supposed to shore up the base votes or the fringe votes. Obama needs someone to balance him out in the polls; sadly that’s just the way American politics function.
http://liberalretort.blogspot.com/
Deborah, here’s an interesting argument for Joe Biden from Mike Plugh. I don’t agree with the “on message” argument, but I do on some other points. I like Biden, I just don’t think he fits the “change” meme.
One note, Brooks is a concern troll of epic proportions. I would argue that Obama is doing just fine, and there’s no need to posit why he isn’t doing better.
He’s an African-American named Barack Hussein Obama, who served a limited time in national public office. We were treated to a month of Reverend Wright and e-mails have circulated for a year about him being a secret Muslim. Oh, and he’s on track to win the presidency in a time of war.
Poblano at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com shows that Obama wins the election rather handily if it were held today. The trend is downward to a degree, but Obama hasn’t exactly been in full campaign mode for weeks. Much ado about nothing.