A Democratic Dan Quayle: Evan Bayh

by: Matt Stoller

Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 13:12


I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the chatter about Evan Bayh as VP.  Karen Tumulty at Time says that insiders are buzzing about this clip where Bayh takes on Joe Lieberman on Fox News.  

I just ran into a long-time insider who told me that he got three phone calls yesterday about Bayh, and I spent time with a strong Hillary-backing retired Admiral months ago who told me that Bayh was going to be her pick.  So Bayh is a strong establishment pick, similar to Tom Daschle (who I've also heard rumors about).

Now, Evan Bayh reminds me mostly of Dan Quayle, a mostly stupid empty suit who goes along with whatever the Beltway establishment wants at the time.  When he started running for President, his voting record went left, and then after he dropped out, he returned to his conservative roots.  In fact, if you look at his record, as Teddy Partridge points out, he's a gay baiting anti-choice neoconservative that looks like a Ken Doll.  He's even from Indiana.  Please, Senator Obama, don't give us Dan Quayle.  It didn't work out for Daddy Bush, and it's not going to work out for you.

Matt Stoller :: A Democratic Dan Quayle: Evan Bayh

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A Democratic Dan Quayle: Evan Bayh | 28 comments
I'm not opposed to Bayh on the ticket (4.00 / 4)
I am opposed if it is Evan.  

On twitter: @BobBrigham
"gay baiting anti-choice neoconservative... Ken Doll" (0.00 / 0)
The Audacity of Cynicism.

Bayh is the worst. I can't believe Obama would sink that low. Please wake me up from this nightmare.

miasmo.com

[ Parent ]
I don't understand it... (0.00 / 0)
I mean with Kaine at least he endorsed Obama early and they have a friendship, but Bayh supported Hilary and adds absolutely nothing to the ticket, except Indiana.

Which must be the reason that Obama is interested in him. Which means that Obama fed us a lot of BS with that whole "I'm not going to pick for electoral reasons" thing.

And don't worry Obamabots, Obama could choose Dick Cheney as his running-mate and I'd still support him (simply because I am terrified of having someone as obviously irrational as McCain as Commander-in-Chief), but it can't be good for his image to keep breaking promises like this...

Hopefully all this talk is just a ploy...

"I'm not going to pick for electoral reasons" (0.00 / 0)
If he picks Bayh, we will know that Obama was lying about his VP strategery. Someone please tell me how a neocon like Bayh is going to help him govern?

miasmo.com
[ Parent ]
The Logic and Fallacy of Evan Bayh (4.00 / 4)
The rationale for picking Bayh for VP is that he reassures the Midwestern Democrats that voted for Hillary en masse. It also helps bury the hatchet with the Clintonistas, which opens the door to bringing the Clinton Rapid Response team on board with Team Obama.

The problem with making this choice, and making it now, is that it will cost a Democratic Senate seat, and Bayh's influence with conservative Democrats is not enough to offset their reluctance to support Obama -- they will come around because Obama convinces them he is the best choice, but not because of the VP nominee.

The biggest problem with making this choice and making it now is that the campaign is about to be overshadowed by the Olympics -- meaning, this bitter pill will be hot topic on the blogs at a time when Obama could be quietly building support, instead of alienating the online activists.

Beyond the pros and cons, Evan Bayh seems like a choice that only inspires the DLC and the Beltway Media -- both of which are an anthema to Obama's agenda.

Bad Choice, all ways round.  

A Rapid Response (0.00 / 0)
for Hillary's 2012 campaign...

A Rapid Response team that has a phone wired into Rove's office.  Although hasn't Carville moved back to LA?

[ Parent ]
Matt ... (0.00 / 0)
have you ever asked your insider friend what happened? .. and by that I mean ... how did the son .. go to the other side of the political spectrum of the father(as far as possible while remaining in the same party)?  did Indiana change that much since when Birch Bayh represented Indiana in the Senate?
Well Birch Bayh lost (4.00 / 2)
...to Dan Quayle incidentally. And the usual reason given for Birch losing is the Conservative movement hitting him on his liberal voting record. Its easy to see how Evan Bayh sees himself as having to play it safe. Its not actually all too different from how Al Gore Sr.'s loss lead Junior to be a cautious moderate in the senate.  
[ Parent ]
Kerry states + IA + IN = 270 (4.00 / 1)
If he can put Obama over the top in IN, do you deal with the devil?

If I may float another conspiracy theory out there, I think Obama is floating horrid VP choices out there so his supporters will actually want Hillary.

John McCain won't insure children

I'll confess (4.00 / 3)
I thought I'd rather have Hillary this morning.  Shocking.  Too bad Bill has lost all discipline.

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.
[ Parent ]
When hell freezes over n/m (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Isn't Obama .. (0.00 / 0)
in good shape in Ohio and Iowa? .. those 2 with all the Kerry states .. would give Obama the victory ... anymore than that is gravy
[ Parent ]
Quayle (0.00 / 0)
Dan Quayle.  It didn't work out for Daddy Bush, and it's not going to work out for you.

Hey, at least the Quayle family cut the Bush family in on their Ely Lilly fortune. So you can't say Bush 41 got nothing out of the pick.

miasmo.com

Yeah but what we didn't see... (0.00 / 0)
..Is Lieberman and Bayh laughing their heads off and patting themselves on the back being best of buddies in the green room...

Or, when Bayh phones Bill: 'Hi Bill, so how did I do bud?  BTW great hit job when you said that "that no one's ever ready to be president" you reminded me of myself a bit then -- we all know Hills would be the only one ready on day one... oh and great racist jibe -- our DLC colleague Harold Ford has really helped reinforced the message eh! - anyways any way I can help - bye'

Bayh voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 (4.00 / 1)
Not a good person to reinforce the message of Democrats being right on domestic issues.

I am disturbed by all of the names on Obama's alleged short list. I would prefer Clark, Biden, Richardson or Clinton to any of them.

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.

Bayh was also the recipient of the ... (4.00 / 1)
...2004 JINSA Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson Award. JINSA's advisory board includes (or has in the past included): Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, R. James Woolsey, Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Douglas Feith.
"a mostly stupid empty suit" (4.00 / 3)
What evidence is there that Bayh is stupid? Leaving the other criticisms you made aside -- is there any evidence that Bayh is stupid? Boring maybe but not stupid. I see that you said "mostly stupid" but it looks like you are using stupid as putdown and not backing it up.

John McCain
this is offensive (4.00 / 4)
I'm sorry.  While one can question Bayh's politics and so on, he is absolutely not stupid  He is not a Dan Quayle.

Moreover, Bayh has been working hard to bring attention on critical manufacturing that is being bought by foreign interests, US workers laid off and the technology, know how, which includes areas that are very much a national security concern, are offshored.  

I'm not a fan on Bayh overall, but on this particular score he is absolutely correct trying to stop manufacturing outsourcing, especially in areas that are in the national interest, US security interest and this affects jobs, US jobs.  

That's not being a stupid suit and these actions should be amplified and encouraged so more Senators try to do the right thing.  

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

another day (4.00 / 1)
another attack on democrat...
Worse for Obama than Quayle for Daddy Bush (0.00 / 0)
At least Quayle was impeachment and assassination insurance for the Kennebunkport pork rind muncher.  With Bayh there would be an incentive for Republicans to impeach Obama or for right wing terrorists to assassinate him.    
Nate Silver thinks he may be a 'laternt liberal" (4.00 / 1)
Interesting take on Bayh here: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com...

Relying on stats, Nate suggets that Bayh is pretty liberal considering his state, and that in such a case, he may turn out to be more liberal on the national level.

Just another perspective.

It didn't work? (0.00 / 0)
Bush won in 1988.

Admittedly, that might have been despite Quayle instead of because of him. Though, frankly, I think it is rare that a VP pick actually has a significant impact on the race (at least for the positive).

The guy is a senator from Indiana (4.00 / 1)
He generally plays things safe and tacks to the middle to avoid serious challenges for reelection. But calling him a gay-bating anti-choice neoconservative is basically senseless. A quick google is all thats really needed. In a state where around 50% identify as pro-life Bayh he's been consistently pro-choice with one exception: the PBA Ban. Like every Democrat that has ever held serious presidential aspirations he's been slippery on gay marriage but he opposed the FMA.

Bayh is part of a pretty big group of congressional democrats who have cautious progressive tendencies but have been traumatized, living in constant fear of being tarred as a liberal. I'm talking about the Nelsons, the Landrieus and Pryors of the senate. The good thing is that when they get out of congress these guys have a tendency to move to the left pretty rapidly. See: Al Gore, John Edwards.

Damn guys, I wanted Obama to pick Russ Feingold too... but no one like that was ever going to get the spot. Bayh would be a disappointing and dull choice. But its not a betrayal. He isn't the devil he's a self-interested politician from a red state who takes to heart the lessons of the 80's and 90's. He isn't a neoconservative, he's just had his ideology scared out of him so now he pretends he doesn't have one.

it's getting too easy to tell the authorship of posts (0.00 / 0)
By now I can tell if Matt Stoller or Paul Rosenberg wrote a post based on how idiotic and hysterical it sounds.  Leaving aside the (to me) unlikelihood of him being picked as VP - despite the scaremongering stirred up in the FDL article - Bayh isn't an airhead like Quayle, and a "conservative" Democrat is a long way from a neocon.  Flaming out like this just undermines your credibility.
stupid (0.00 / 0)
Your thesis:

Bayh isn't an airhead like Quayle, and a "conservative" Democrat is a long way from a neocon.

This is called evidence.

Bayh is well to the right of both Obama and the party at large. He not only voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002, he was an honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Liberate Iraq, along with Joe Lieberman and John McCain. If those associates weren't bad enough, the group's non-Senatorial members included Bill Kristol, James Woolsey, and McCain foreign policy guru Randy Scheunemann. Even in this Congress, Bayh voted for the relatively weak Levin amendment calling for redeployment but against the more hard-hitting Feingold amendment, which Obama and Clinton both supported.

[ Parent ]
you're being hardnosed (0.00 / 0)
This is called evidence.

No it isn't, it's called "not following every line we'd like him to".  You seem to have forgotten that there's a broad spectrum of political ideas in this country, not just progressive and neoconservative; and both of those frankly (and unfortunately in the former case) represent relatively small proportions of the population.  You're taking on the "with us or against us" attitude that sank the Naderites and the neocons themselves.  He's not someone I'd vote for in a primary and not someone I'd want as VP, but last time I checked being pro-labor, generally pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-tax cut, etc. were not neocon positions, regardless of his position on the war.
[ Parent ]
Oh, c'mon (4.00 / 1)
Matt - I've followed your writing for quite some time, and I agree with you on almost everything, but this post about Bayh is just over the top.  Evan Bayh is way too experienced, and has been around in the leadership of the party far too long, to be a "Dan Quayle".  

While Bayh is not my first choice (not in my first ten choices, actually) he is far better on positions than Kaine(who is completely pro-life), and as this clip showed he defended Obama better than many (and I'm thinking of Kerry on MTP this past Sunday).  While his votes have not been great, he does not "gay bait", nor is he a "neoconservative", those are remarks that serve no useful purpose and are not reflective of his entire record or what he has said.

once again (0.00 / 0)
While his votes have not been great, he does not "gay bait", nor is he a "neoconservative"

Bayh is well to the right of both Obama and the party at large. He not only voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002, he was an honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Liberate Iraq, along with Joe Lieberman and John McCain. If those associates weren't bad enough, the group's non-Senatorial members included Bill Kristol, James Woolsey, and McCain foreign policy guru Randy Scheunemann. Even in this Congress, Bayh voted for the relatively weak Levin amendment calling for redeployment but against the more hard-hitting Feingold amendment, which Obama and Clinton both supported.

[ Parent ]
A Democratic Dan Quayle: Evan Bayh | 28 comments
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