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.
