I’m hearing word that Evan Bayh has at least a 50-50 chance of getting the vice-presidential nod and that the final decision will be made soon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other names to tell you so that you know what the alternatives are. The New York Times did a great job yesterday morning in explaining why the selection of Bayh would be problematic. It would be hard to fuck up Barack Obama’s brand any worse than picking John McCain’s honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. We really shouldn’t have to say anything more than that.
If Evan Bayh is acceptable then maybe John McCain’s judgment isn’t so bad after all. I might add that Al From of the DLC wants Evan Bayh and so does Cokie ‘Myrtle Beach’ Roberts. Those are two big alarm-bells. And I’d really prefer it not to be the case that Team Obama is more interested in appeasing Al From and Cokie Roberts than they are concerned with enraging their base of support online. There are many of us that were in the long fight to win the nomination with Obama who made that commitment out of a desperate desire to see the DLC sidelined and a new generation of post-Bush thinking Democrats put in charge of the party. We’re the same people that fought off Tim Roehmer and Harold Ford for DNC chairmen and gave you Howard Dean and the immensely successful 50-state strategy. We did not put in all that work in order to see the former DLC chairman put next in line for the presidency.
I could talk about voting records and lack of charisma, and a host of other negatives to Evan Bayh. But the bottom line is that he will undermine Obama’s main claims that he used to successfully beat Hillary Clinton and take away valuable arguments that we want to use against John McCain. And he’ll make all of us that stood up for Obama look like a bunch of jackasses. People that look like jackasses feel like jackasses. And people that feel like jackasses get a little gun-shy about making the same mistakes twice. In other words, the selection of Bayh will depress enthusiasm in the base that is providing free media, free opposition research, free opposition media, etc.
Evan Bayh is just a bad idea. It’s okay to float the name like you took him really seriously. But it’s not okay to take Cokie Roberts’ and Al From’s side in a gunfight. Not against us. Don’t do it. Contact the Obama campaign and let them know how you feel. There is not a lot of time left before this decision is made.
you missed a great pun there, boo:
“say buh-bayh to bayh”
Whoever Obama picks, I’m expecting a disappointing choice. I’m hoping he’ll surprise us with a brilliant choice that we hadn’t thought of, but I’m not holding my breath. Very little of what he has done since winning the primary indicates that he is going to try to win the election in an affirmative way. Looks to me like his team has decided to back into the White House defensively by ‘moving to the center’ at every opportunity. The problem with this strategy is that the Republicans and the corporate media have been working for 30 years to shift the center dramatically to the right. Wish I could be more optimistic….
I’m with you.
I already feel like a jackass. Although given the choices, I would still support Obama for the nomination. But my enthusiasm would have been less, and I would have shelved the hope early on.
I have learned never to feel enthusiasm. My rule of thumb: if a person ascends the money ladder to being a candidate for the US presidency, then something is wrong with that person’s moral backbone and vision for the future, and therefore, I never hold my breath in anticipation of progressive change.
I’m a senior so old enough to know better. I’m going back to my usual mode of donating to non-profits that reliably represent my interests and causes.
“We did not put in all that work in order to see the former DLC chairman put next in line for the presidency.”
Yeah well he fucked you (us all really) on FISA, so don’t be surprised.
There’s a reason the party logo is a jackass….
…and what happens if he DOES pick Bayh?
Are you really going to stop supporting Obama?
I think it’s time to face some unfortunate facts about Barack Obama. My feeling is his campaign gamed the netroots pretty badly. Kinda like Chris Carney, Jerry McInerny and the rest of the Democratic Establishment.
He likes the netrootsy money and free media, but doesn’t really feel the same way about the issues we support.
Just a gut feeling.
I’ll support him even if he picks Bayh, just like I supported Dukakis even after Lloyd Bentsen.
Gore after Lieberman as a deal breaker. I voted for him, but I did no work.
got it. that makes sense.
FWIW, I think he’s going to pick bayh, and the hope balloon will deflate a bit further.
I mean, really, what choice do we have? I learned in HS Freshman year history class about “the lesser of two evils” choices of history, and maybe “evil” is too strong a word to use with Mr. Obama (but not with McCain), but I’m not going to vote to allow McCain and the neocons the presidency again. I’d rather see it go to the DLC than the neocons. At least the DLC doesn’t threaten the world with nuclear weapons.
Of course we got played.
Why is anyone here acting all surprised after FISA?
And it doesn’t matter much anyway, there won’t be any money for progressive programs in 2009.
No, there’s plenty of money, there’ll be no political will and heartfelt vision for progressive programs. We thought we liberated the Congress from Republicans in 2006 with out votes, but the Dems have failed miserably, and continue to coddle and support the neocon agenda being shoved down our throats.
Plenty of money, no political will.
Hard to argue against that, if Obama had the level of political will necessary for the job ahead, well, FISA would be dead right now.
Still, now that I’ve had a chance to think about BooMan’s excellent column, I still happen to completely agree with him on Bayh.
the plugged in Steve Clemons also is hearing independently that at the Obama retreat Bayh is than 50/50:
Clemons reason for voting against the Bayh VP idea:
In reading some archived threads at another group of mine, Bayh was thought to have some cachet as one of Hillary’s people. He supported her in the primaries, so thus would be “acceptable” to Hillary backers.
Of course, this was before those PUMA morons took over that freakshow, so now it’s anyone’s guess.
I don’t like Bayh, or Tim Kaine, but as I said before, the media will nitpick Obama’s selection to death anyway.
What about Carl Levin?? Strong on foreign affairs, “moderate enough” for the DLC types but I do not perceive him as being in their corner. Is he too old? What do you all think?
Levin is 74 years old. That is a problem. But he is running for another six-year term this year so he feels up to most of an eight-year term.
Is he really 74? Wow. I would’ve guessed sixty-something.
I left this comment for the Obama Campaign:
The movement against Bayh for VP is growing,
on Facebook:
100,000 Strong Against Bayh for VP
You must realize by now that opposition movements are no hindrance to Obama. He had no problem blowing off and dismissing the thousands who came together at his site and lobbied him to vote against the FISA garbage. Essentially telling them they could vote for someone else. They had “options”. He repeated it, having options that is, to the young men who questioned him in St. Petersburg about his commitment to black issues.
I’m almost beginning to feel sorry for anyone who thinks that Obama will respond to these actions. Now he’s gone and undermined BooMan’s reasons for supporting him, to drive a stake into the heart of the DLC and it’s foot soldiers, by having Bayh atop his VP list. How many times does he need to toss supporters overboard before reality sets in? Really? Especially when there are, you know, options?
don’t be an idiot. Cynthia McKinney is an option on the ballot, not an alternative to McCain. You live in New York and so your vote doesn’t count no matter what you do. If you want to vote Green to help the party’s future prospects, go for it. But don’t insult our intelligence by presenting her as an option. There are two people that may become president. Not three. Not four. Not five. Two.
If you care which becomes president, if you think it matters at all, then you ought to do something to help the candidate you prefer. We all know that candidate is Obama. He doesn’t need your vote, but he could use your help.
In 2004, I personally oversaw the registration of over 10,000 Democrats in Florida and Pennsylvania. Kerry saw a 3.4% bump in the counties I was responsible for, and it contributed to his victory in Pennsylvania.
I almost didn’t vote because I didn’t have time. It wouldn’t have mattered because I had already provided more votes against Bush than anyone I knew at the time.
There is political action and then there is impotent bitching. You specialize in the latter.
Voting is political action. Protesting politicians who start and support wars is political action. Voting against politicians who represent the same old nonsense is political action. Voting for independent party candidates in an effort to achieve a workable base of support is political action.
I have all the respect in the world for people who get out and register voters for their party. I also have respect, equal respect, for people who’s involvement only goes so far as paying attention to issues and voting their beliefs. I don’t have the luxury of time that others do to get out and regfister voters. Not many people do these days. In fact, the only reason I’m able to comment at all in the middle of the day today is because I’m ill, and losing a day’s pay because of it.
So, while your activism for democrats could be seen as admirable, in no way does it diminish the actions of those of us who do do what we can.
Impotent bitching is a good way to describe what you and others of Obama’s supporters are doing now that he is bent on tossing you overboard. Or under his proverbial bus.
I’m trying to think of the last time you said anything positive about a Democrat or negative about a Republican. I’m drawing a blank.
The number of worthwhile democrats is dwindling despite the late, great heralded efforts of the “netroots” to infuse the party with new blood. Even some those new ones have turned their backs on you already.
I have given credit to some democrats where credit is due, but opportunities for praise are few and far between and the future isn’t looking so bright these days.
Of course the ONE democrat who is taking his oath to the constitution seriously is mocked and ridiculed here on these pages. Republicans no longer enter into my thinking. They are a dying breed. The democrats are bent on supplanting them.
Kucinich may get mocked a lot in orange. But you’ll need a different example than the diary you linked to prove that he is reviled in green, universally or even by the admins (in that diary, you were attacked by AG, who was debunked by Booman. And you were supported by Steven D and SF Hawkguy.)
I linked to the diary in response to BooMan’s coming up blank trying to remember me having anything good to say about a democrat. The diary was praise of a democrat for doing his goddamned job.
Examples of Kucinich’s poor standing and poor treatment on this site, front page or otherwise, are numerous and obvious to anyone paying attention here.
If that was the point you were trying to make, it would have made more sense to imbed your link in this phrase (“I have given credit to some democrats where credit is due…”) than in this one (“Of course the ONE democrat who is taking his oath to the constitution seriously is mocked and ridiculed here on these pages.”). As it was, it looked as though you were giving Arthur Gilroy more credibility for speaking for the site than Booman or Steven D.
My apologies for being senseless.
Ugh, not Bayh. Boxer for Veep, a true progressive.
And I’d really prefer it not to be the case that Team Obama is more interested in appeasing Al From and Cokie Roberts than they are concerned with enraging their base of support online.
Seriously? Do you really think they care that much about enraging their online support?
There are many of us that were in the long fight to win the nomination with Obama who made that commitment out of a desperate desire to see the DLC sidelined and a new generation of post-Bush thinking Democrats put in charge of the party.
I still find it highly amusing that the left blogosphere decided that the way to “stick it to the DLC” was to throw their heart and souls (and wallets) behind a slightly left-leaning pragmatic centrist preaching the message of bi-partisanship. It’s kind of like trying to punish the cattle industry by boycotting McDonald’s and going to Burger King instead. It still makes me chuckle when I think about it.
It would be hard to fuck up Barack Obama’s brand any worse than picking John McCain’s honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.
From a campaign perspective, this is why I’m expecting them to pass Bayh up. Unless they really think that his anti-Iraq War stance is a big loser to the general public and he’s going to back away from it for the general. In which case – why the fuck did he bother running at all? It was the only piece of his campaign that was significantly different enough from Clinton’s to make picking between the two of them involve more effort than flipping a goddamn coin.
I’m still expecting him to take “foreign policy instincts” as his STRENGTH and to go with someone with administrative experience as his VP. That’s the kind of political jujitsu he should be undertaking. One of the handful of governors on his short list. I’m still hoping that he ends up picking Sebelius, because she’s the least of all evils among the names I’ve seen floating around so far.
I wrote a strong letter decrying the DLC effect of destroying our Democratic Party values over the last decade.
Thanks for the link.
If he does pick Bayh, wouldn’t that mean, in effect, that the entire battle between Obama and the Clintons would have turned out to be a power struggle over who is to be the future standard-bearer of the DLC?
Considering the tremendous GOTV effort of the Obama campaign, the 50-state strategy, the theme of change, the hindsight of the last 16 years — that is not only disappointing — it’s absolutely, pathetically ridiculous.
I’ll believe it when it happens, but right now, it just doesn’t make sense to me.
What this really is, is Bill Clinton’s latest Hail Mary pass, and I don’t think it’s going to work out any better for him than the others did.
I’m sympathetic to all the pessimism going around the blogs — what I mean is, I can understand it. But folks, what you gotta understand is that most of this is just the usual, rather effective, “perception management” emanating from all supporters of the status quo. It’s the usual quadrennial snow job, that to any objective observer, merits nothing but derision. Most Americans know the status quo is a complete and utter disaster. It’s not a matter of argument, it’s part of their daily lives. The reason we doubt they know this is only because the Republican/DLC noise machine is doing its job.
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