Loading ...
By CHRIS SAUTTER
WASHINGTON - I ran into Evan Bayh in late July at a Capitol Hill event for Indiana House Speaker Pat Bauer. Bayh was chatty, almost nervously so, as rumors swirled that he was on Barack Obama’s short list for Vice President. He told me how events during the past couple of years have pulled him back and forth between national politics and just being a .jpg)
Senator. First, he said, he dropped his presidential bid concluding “well that’s not going to happen, time to move on.” Then his name surfaced as a possible VP with Hillary Clinton. But when her campaign failed he thought “well, its’ definitely over now.” And, now he was back in the mix as Obama was seriously considering him as his running mate. It was a human moment for a political figure who has been described as robotic at times.
Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate to shore up a perceived weakness in foreign policy experience. Biden had been ranked by handicappers like The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza behind Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, both of whom might have helped Obama win a state Democrats had not carried since 1964. Russia’s invasion of Georgia changed the calculus. Before Georgia, Biden was viewed as somewhat risky. He tends to say what is on his mind and he might create unneeded drama on the campaign trail. Besides, Obama will easily carry Biden’s home state of Delaware and is leading in Pennsylvania, where Biden was born.
After Georgia, Biden’s stock rose quickly. National reporters like NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Hardball’s Chris Matthews gushed over Biden. Mitchell talked about Biden’s years of foreign policy experience while Matthews talked up his personal story and blue collar roots. Biden’s vocal opposition to the War in Iraq made him more acceptable to party liberals than Bayh. Just as the war had been the divide in the battle for the nomination between Obama and Hillary Clinton, so it become a divide between Biden and Bayh for the heart of the party’s rank and file. During the past week, even as the national media gathered outside his Washington home in case he was chosen, Bayh himself realized it was not going to be.
Biden knows the feeling, much more so. In 1988, Biden’s presidential campaign had real momentum. Gary Hart, the presumed frontrunner, had withdrawn from the race in the wake of a sex scandal. Biden was young, articulate, and energetic. His campaign was attracting first-rate operatives like David Wilhelm, who went on to manage Bill Clinton’s race four years later. He had shot to the top of the polls in Iowa. Then it all came crashing down when John Sasso who managed Michael Dukakis’ campaign leaked a tape which showed that Biden had appropriated and used as if it were his own large portions of a speech given by British Labor leader Neil Kinnick.
In spite of his checkered past, Biden does provide re-assurance for those worried about Obama’s lack of experience. And, he will be by far the most interesting, should I say entertaining, of the possible VP picks, with the exception of Hillary Clinton. Bayh would have brought message discipline in debates and on the campaign trail which Biden is sure to be lacking. And, Bayh’s moderate politics would have reassured many in the Democratic Party worried about its growing liberal tilt.
What’s next for Evan Bayh? Bayh could do no worse than follow Biden’s example. In the wake of his 1988 campaign’s collapse, Biden rebuilt his reputation as a smart, hard-working Senator who does his homework and is willing to do what he really believes is right. Do what is right and one never knows what might happen next in politics.
Sautter is an Indiana native and a political/media consultant in Washington. He writes periodically for Howey Politics Indiana.
Tags: Barack Obama, Chris Sautter, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden
Related posts
This entry was written by and posted on August 23, 2008 at 8:32 am and filed under Chris Sautter Column. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.