Archive for the ‘Evan Bayh’ Category

Always colorful, former Democrat Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives John Gregg definitely lays claim to the quote of the day in the Indy Star this morning regarding Senator Evan Bayh not receiving the vice presidential nod:

Former House Speaker John Gregg was blunt as he grimly joked about his disappointment: “Let me get the noose off of my neck.”

“I’m sad for him. I’m sad for the Hoosier state. I’m sad for the Democratic Party,” Gregg said.

In the same article, Gregg later acknowledges his lack of enthusiasm for the Biden pick.

I wonder how Indiana Democrats feel about this concession that Bayh’s non-pick it not good for their chances in the November election for statewide and legislative races. Jill Long will have a hard time boosting the spirits of her base after so much was staked on the Bayh announcement that did not happen.

It’s over! We finally know. Plenty has been blogged/reported/tweeted, Birch’s boy, I’m sure, shed many a tear (though the coif remained resilient as ever) over not getting picked and for some reason, Republicans and Democrats rejoiced at the choice of Senator Joe Biden at Barack’s running mate.

Why could a liberal Democrat senator from Delaware bring these two groups together?  It’s because we each got what we wanted.

Obama and the nutroots got their attack dog (rather than the lapdog Bayh would have been) who has the experience in foreign policy that Obama sorely lacks, he’s a vocal critic of the war even though he initially supported it, plus he brings more experience in general to the ticket. Yay, for Democrats.

What did Republicans get that makes us almost giddy over the choice of Joe Biden?

Fellow contributor Scott Fluhr notes over at Hoosier Pundit (via the Campaign Spot)

It’s hard for Obama supporters to play the age card any longer, as their potential veep is all of six years younger than McCain.

The candidate of hope and change selected a running mate who was first elected to public office when Obama was 9 years old. He was elected to the Senate when Obama was 11.

The bottom of the ticket running on change has been in Washington forever.

He voted for the Iraq War — which Obama touted as the most important decision since the end of the Cold War.

Biden supports a ban on partial-birth abortion. He supports deploying U.S. troops to Darfur in Sudan.

His mouth will be an absolute time bomb. Will he refer to Delaware as a “slave state” again?

And of course, there’s this:

[youtube sM19YOqs7hU]

(H/T - Hoosier Pundit)

Drudge is reporting that a company in Kansas City is printing mass quantities of Obama/Bayh bumper stickers. Also, I read yesterday that Susan Bayh got her hair cut and is telling neighbors to watch out for the media trucks. Enough of the speculation. Let’s get this over with.

UPDATE 1 (By Mike): Drudge Headline: “MSNBC: Bayh, Kaine have been informed they are not it…“

*Update* - Obama is not coming to Indiana on Saturday.  Thanks to the WaPo for clarifying what could have been easily discerned.   (h/t Derek Pillie’s twitter feed)

So the blogosphere and the news rooms are swirling with glee and delight that Barack Obama might actually pick Senator Bayh as his running mate. Smoke and mirrors while Obama secretly works on his real pick or just enough loose rope to reel people in?

Consider that the Nashville Post broke the story this morning that Obama was heading to Indiana this weekend for a potential “major event”.

The Nashville Post, which broke the news of Obama’s impending visit, reports that the trip to Indianapolis includes a “major event” and that senior Obama officials are being called in from around the country to attend.

CBS News previously reported that Obama plans a major rally with his newly announced running mate in Springfield, Illinois, on Saturday at the site where Obama launched his presidential campaign.

Sounds sexy doesn’t it? Makes all the chattering classes squirm and squeal with delight. That is, unless you’re part of the MoveOn.org crowd who feel that Evan Bayh couldn’t hold Obama’s liberal jock strap.

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I just picked up off the Free Republic a screenshot someone posted of CNN’s website. The CNN website indicated an aide has stated Democrat Presidential presumptive nominee Barack Obama has picked Indiana junior Senator Evan Bayh to be his Veep choice. CNN has since yanked the story. Considering how little Birch Evans Bayh III brings to a Bayh Obama ticket, the question begs asking - Is it real or a red herring?

This will be interesting to see develop….

(Crossposted to the DFB)

Evan Bayh appeared Sunday morning on Face the Nation on CBS.

Let’s just charitably say it wasn’t his best performance.

The transcript isn’t up yet, so I’ll settle for the reporting on the Indy Star.

Interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Indiana Democrat said McCain is given to “bellicose rhetoric which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to defuse them.”

This “bellicose rhetoric which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than defuse them” would stem from McCain supposedly, according to The One’s own advisers and surrogates, having “roughly the same position” as the Obamassiah?

From the Washington Post:

Richard Holbrooke, an ambassador to the U.N. in the Clinton administration and an Obama supporter, objected to the suggestion that Obama had been late in coming to a tough condemnation of Russia. Obama and McCain are now more or less on the same page in decrying the aggression, he said.

“It is based on an exaggerated and deliberately misleading perception of Senator Obama’s initial statement, which was issued early, while the crisis was unfolding,” he said. “This is an attempt by people supporting Senator McCain to politicize a great international tragedy and it’s not worthy of the dimensions of the problem, especially when both candidates have roughly the same position.”

Perhaps Evan Bayh should explain himself.

Which is it?

Does Barack Obama have “roughly the same position” as John McCain?

Are they “more or less on the same page in decrying the aggression”?

How do such statements square with Bayh’s assertion that McCain is engaging in “bellicose rhetoric”?

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Well look what ABC News is reporting from an article dated from March 23, 2005 but hidden in an updated portion a little ways down:

From Page Six: “It’s one thing to get elected to high office with an outspoken wife — it’s quite another to get into a tony country club. Case in point: Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), an applicant to the blue-blooded Chevy Chase Club in suburban Washington. He’s been on probation since his wife, Susan, was overheard yelling at the staff on more than one occasion. ‘She’s really teed off on some of the help,’ said one member. Bayh, whose name is often brought up as a possible presidential candidate, had enjoyed club privileges while his application was being considered.”

Nothing says “smack on the hand” like probation at a golf course.  But if there is one thing to take from this, don’t mess with Mrs. Bayh I guess.  You may not be able to play at your favorite golf course.

I really love these.  They keep on getting better.

[youtube z7aectLHxLw]

Jim Shella reported the following last week:

Barack Obama repeated in Elkhart this week that he won’t confirm anything with regard to his running mate selection process.

Consider this:

A source reports that people from “Washington” arrived at the building that houses the state archives this week. Its on east 30th Street. They are culling through documents left behind when Evan Bayh was governor.

This is real.

I wonder if, in their vetting process, Team Obamassiah is looking into other aspects of Bayh’s background, history, and so forth.

One would assume that they are, and any such vetting must surely include the uncomfortable topic of Evan Bayh’s wife, Susan.

And, no, I don’t mean the bevy of investigations into questionable behavior that surround her actions on the boards of many companies that have benefited from her husband’s votes over the years (see here, here, and here). They reek of the sort of insider good-old-boy dealings that voters weary of “politics as usual” are almost certain to find distasteful.

Those rumors are troublesome and damaging enough to Bayh’s vice presidential prospects all by themselves.

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Another day, another pack of rumors and fawning speculations about the Obamassiah and Birch’s Boy.

Even Bayh himself has started to pour cold water on the whole thing.

And for good reason.

There won’t be a vice presidential pick today, so the Obasm-giddy chattering classes will face an inevitable let-down. Better to minimize that as much as possible, if you’re a VP hopeful and don’t want to lose the expectations game, right?

Let me stick my neck out, as the proverbial saying goes, and predict that Evan Bayh will not be announced as Barack Obama’s running mate on today.

How do I know for certain?

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And for good measure here’s Senator Bayh’s theme song, “Waiting”, thanks to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

(Youtube is being a pain and not allowing any of their videos to be posted for some reason)