As a Populist Democrat my first choice for VP is Jim Webb, however, I will acknowledge that Obama has plenty of good options for the #2 spot.
So I'm writing this diary simply to raise the possibility and potential benefits of an Obama-Bayh ticket. Before any of you react, take a look at the possible benefits:
- Evan Bayh covers Obama's experience gap. He has served both as a governor and a senator. While in the Senate, he served in both the Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
- Evan Bayh could help turn Indiana blue. In 2004 he won re-election carrying 62% of the vote, and he and his father are well-known and very popular in Indiana. These mid-western credentials could be enough to swing Indiana as well as other mid-western states into Obama's column.
- Bayh is popular with three groups that Obama needs in order to win this election: men, blue-collar voters, and whites.
- Since Bayh supported Clinton in the primary, he could help Obama further unite the party.
When I first heard that Bayh was the former head of the DLC, I had my reservations about putting him on the ticket. However, as I looked at his record I discovered that he wasn't an Al From centrist. One potential drawback for Bayh could be his early support for the Iraq War. But, he eventually expressed his regret for voting for the war and than voted for a bill that would have redeployed our troops by March 2008.
As for the trade issue, Bayh supports amending NAFTA, voted against CAFTA, Oman-FTA, and has called for more tariffs against China.
I still have reservations about Bayh's ties with the DLC, but as Obama would probably say, "There is no Liberal Democratic Party or Centrist Democratic Party, there is the Democratic Party."
What I mean is that although we netroots Democrats have had our differences with the DLC, it's time that we realize that both the netroots and the DLC share common values as Democrats.
And again, Evan Bayh is not Al From.
More to come on the VP speculation.
Update: After seeing this article about Bayh, my support for him as VP has dropped. Read it for yourself
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Although I have recently flirted with him as a potential VP, I can now say that we do not need someone that imitates GOP talking points on national security on the ticket. We've tried that strategy and we have failed.