Speculation continues to swirl around Barack Obama's upcoming vice presidential pick. One name that keeps resurfacing (much to our dismay) is Senator (and former Governor) Evan Bayh.
Earthworms would rival this guy for personality points. Pundits call him a "safe pick;" I'd call it a comatose choice.
But putting the flat ginger ale demeanor aside, Bayh has many other checkmarks in the negative column, not the least of which is his support for the war in Iraq. And I don't mean your garden variety cowardly DLC Democrat support of the war, I mean big, prominent chest-thumping on the war.
As the New York Times reported yesterday, "Mr. Bayh’s support of authorizing force in Iraq stands in sharp contrast to Mr. Obama’s oft-stated view that he showed the good judgment to oppose the conflict from the start. After his vote, Mr. Bayh in early 2003 joined Mr.[John] McCain as an honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which made regime change in Iraq its central cause.
Bayh, to his credit, has acknowledged his vote was a mistake and he even voted against Condolezza Rice's nomination to be Secretary of State, but his positions on social issues and his 4-year stint as head of the DLC would work to undermine Obama's entire message on the Iraq War and on changing how Washington operates.
The last vice president to emerge from the state of Indiana was Dan Quayle. Let's keep it that way.
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