Lefties Give Thumbs Down To Bayh As Obama Veep

Liberal bloggers such as those who can be found at Talking Points Memo breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Sen. Evan Bayh confirm himself that he would not be named as Sen. Barack Obama's running mate during Obama's visit to Indiana tomorrow. So what's the Left's beef with Bayh? It's Iraq, stupid. Sen. Evan Bayh was an original co-chair of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, along with Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman. TPM explained last month why this makes Bayh an unacceptable choice:

Senator Evan Bayh's appearance today with Barack Obama at the "21st Century Threats" summit has stirred a lot of talk in the press about the possibility of him being on Obama's Veep short-list.

But we're not sure that's such a viable idea. That's because in 2003, Bayh was an honorary co-chair of the neocon pro-war Committee for the Liberation of Iraq -- a group he joined along with none other than John McCain and Joe Lieberman, according to a press release from during the run-up to the invasion.

The Committee is a neo-con group that was formed to propagandize the country into war. It boasted such illustrious neocon members as Bill Kristol, former CIA director James Woolsey, and even McCain senior foreign policy adviser and Chalabi-bamboozler Randy Scheunemann, whom Josh has been blogging about.

Bayh would, to put it very charitably, muddle Obama's message. It's true that Bayh was said to have subsequently removed himself from the group. But Obama's campaign is partly about -- and rightly so -- the judgment he made, and others didn't, in the run-up to the invasion.

Indiana Democrats seem to think having Bayh on a national ticket with Obama is a silver bullet that will propel long-shot Jill Long-Thompson into the governor's office and turn Indiana blue in a presidential election for the first time since 1964. Republicans have been trying desperately for more than two decades to figure how to bring down Bayh like they did his father with Dan Quayle back in the 1980 Senate race. Bayh is normally very cautious about any political decision he makes. If there were ever a time when he should be putting his finger to the wind, the time is now.

The untested, unqualified and unknown Obama is going to sink like a lead balloon as he continues to be exposed to America for what he really is. At this point in every single presidential election I've observed, the Democratic candidate has always had a significant lead over the Republican candidate. Yet, with the economy in the dumps, record high gas prices and rising unemployment, Obama is either deadlocked or holds a statistically insignificant lead over McCain. There is a reason for Obama's decline.

Whether the mainstream media chooses to report on it is irrelevant. It's out there and the little guy and gal on the street in middle America knows about it and is talking about it. Bayh won't begin to want to defend the issues which are already being raised and are going to be raised about Obama during this campaign. They'll make his residency battle with the Republicans look like child's play. A Bayh decision to join an Obama ticket, if offered, would be the silver bullet Republicans have been looking for all these years to bring down Bayh. To my Republican friends, say a little prayer that Bayh winds up on that ticket with Obama. Rex Early will enjoy more laughs over the next several months than he has in his political lifetime.