Saturday, December 16, 2006

Bayh Out, Already

File this under "It Makes No Sense" category. Sen. Evan Bayh announces he is dropping his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination less than two weeks after announcing he was forming an exploratory committee and after raising more than $10 million. According to the Hotline blog, CBS was the first to break the news. Here's Bayh's official statement explaining his withdrawal:

During my two terms as Governor and now in the United States Senate, it has always been more about the people I was able to help than the job I held. As you know I have been exploring helping the people of my state and our country in a different capacity. After talking with family and friends over the past several days, I have decided that this is not the year for me to run for President and I will not be a candidate for the presidency in 2008. It wasn't an easy decision but it was the right one for my family, my friends and my state. I have always prided myself on putting my public responsibilities ahead of my own ambitions.

The odds were always going to be very long for a relatively unknown candidate like myself, a little bit like David and Goliath. And whether there were too many Goliaths or whether I'm just not the right David, the fact remains that at the end of the day, I concluded that due to circumstances beyond our control the odds were longer than I felt I could responsibly pursue. This path - and these long odds - would have required me to be essentially absent from the Senate for the next year instead of working to help the people of my state and the nation.

I am immensely grateful for the support of my family and friends and the thousands of people around the country who helped me with their time and their resources. There may be no campaign in the near future, but there is much work to be done. When the Senate returns, I will focus on the issues that matter to the people of my state and are critical to the future of the nation including reducing our dependence on foreign oil, creating opportunity for middle class families, and implementing a national security strategy that is both tough and smart.

So essentially he is saying that the odds against winning pitted against the necessity of being absent from his Senate duties over the next year led him to his decision to drop out. Maybe. I think there's a lot more to this story than what is contained in that statement. I've heard folks say that Bayh is bored with being in the Senate and may not even seek re-election to another term. A presidential bid allowed him a potential jumping off point. Unlike some of his other potential opponents, he hasn't been the subject of any negative stories about his past. I expect we'll here more about this in coming days.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well,is it the fact that he isn't weird enough to win the Demo Nomination or the fact that he's too chicken to try...I hope he decides to do something other than politics. Indiana needs a second Senator.

Wilson46201 said...

OK - so 2008 is out for Bayh's Presidential run but there's always 2012 - 2016 - 2020 - etc !

Anonymous said...

Great post, thanks. Not sure if you've seen this brief recent CNN piece on Gore, but I think it's quite well done. Here's a link to the youtube video www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Thank God! Bayh would have been tough for the GOP to handle.

Hillary and/or Hussein-Obama? Not so much.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Bayh's "Mr Rogers" mannerism and speaking style would ring the veracity bell with the rest of America.

But in Indiana, we are content with mediocrity.

Wilson46201 said...

Good ole GOP tactics: scare 'em with xenophobia: calling him Hussein-Obama! Barack Obama is Barack Hussein Obama Junior : he was named after his father (now dead). But good try at stirring up the rubes with racist name-play! The little baby who is now a U.S. Senator was named way before Saddam Hussein ever had been known outside of Tikrit!

If that's the best the wingers can do at smearing Senator Obama, he's in great shape. The Mighty Smear Machine of the GOP is researchng furiously for leftover attacks from losing GOP candidate Alan Keyes in Illinois. The Matt Drudges and Jocelyn Tandys will be unleashed to lie, smear, distort and slander. Texas millionaires will covertly fund 'citizen' campaigns ripping into Senator Obama... when they are through, he will be responsible for John Wayne Gacy, the Valentines Day Massacre and the spread of AIDS in the USA !

indyernie said...

Was Bayh ever in? He never had a chance.
Wilson you told us months ago, anything was fair in politics (you were spreading false info on Dickerson at the time).
I think Big Ears Obama can fend for himself...the last thing he needs, is you driving his bandwagon.

Wilson46201 said...

False info? You call the reporting of the existence of an officially certified Indianapolis police report about Dickerson beating his wife and biting his daughter 'false info' ??? I also reported this was sworn to in a court affidavit by 2 Indianapolis police officers. Are you now allegng perjury by Vince Huber and the other LEO??? Better phone that in on Monday too with your belated discovery of Election Day stuff!

Anonymous said...

Touchy, touchy Wilson.

Looks like I hit a nerve. Or is that just a soft underbelly?

Anonymous said...

Texas millionaires will covertly fund 'citizen' campaigns ripping into Senator Obama

Compared to former Soviet and Eastern Bloc Hungarian millionaires covertly funding "citizen" campaigns and 527's to rip into the GOP?

Anonymous said...

losing GOP candidate Alan Keyes in Illinois

Alan Keyes was ballot filler and you f**king know it!! The original candidate - Jim Ryan - was doing quite well in polls until the Chicago media blindsided him with previously court sealed divorce depositions.

Anonymous said...

This post is full of hilarious train wrecks posing as facts.

But, for the record...

Sen. Bayh is a longtime friend and a good senator. We disagree on much, but friendship is quite another thing. He would've made a great national candidate, and may yet some day.

LMAO. Gov. Ryan got "blindsided" by felonious ativites while Secretary of State? Then Mrs. O'Leary's cow was merely seeking some warmth when he knocked over the lantern...



I take him at his word, soft-spoken tho it often is. If that calm demeanor is truly mediocrity, as suggested above, then God help Lincoln's legacy.

Not everyone can be a Hillary or an Obama. Thankfully.

The road to the Dem nomination, moreso than the Republicans, is frought with pitfalls. Just look at recent history. To win, in those early states, unfortunately for Evan, the far-left element of the party gains disproportionate attention.

We'll see how it goes. Cut the senator some slack. 08 is a long way off.

Anonymous said...

LMAO. Gov. Ryan got "blindsided" by felonious ativites while Secretary of State?

Wrong Ryan. You're thinking of former SoS and Gov. George "Lyin" Ryan. The senatorial candidate was Jim Ryan, no relation. He was married to Jeri Ryan - who was an actress who played the role of the Borg "Seven of Nine" on Star Trek Voyager as I recall.

indyernie said...

Bayh as Governor, left Indiana so far in dept that we are still recovering. As a Senator he always votes along party line. He is a do nothing for Indiana Senator...He will make a terrible President if ever elected

Anonymous said...

Bayh didn't stand a chance. Democrats are in the mood for a leader who will actually do something about fixing healthcare, protecting pension funds, stopping the export of jobs and corruption in our elections. The post says, "Unlike some of his other potential opponents, he hasn't been the subject of any negative stories about his past." That's because he's never done anything. He’s played it safe his entire career, using his good looks and moderate-to-conservative positions to win elections in Indiana. He's on the ballot as a democrat, but outside of Indiana his record would never stand up.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Sir,

But Ryan didn't get "blindsided" by the press, he got blindsided by the religious fanatics of the IL Repub. party, who the party bosses were terrified would not support Ryan. He was forced out by Party leaders who didn't have the guts to say the simple fact of "THIS IS IRRELEVANT TRASH, NOT A REAL ISSUE". They forced him out AFTER Jeri Ryan went on television to say that Ryan was a good man and father. After it was revealed that the allegations involved Ryan and his wife's sex life-no one else. You want to blame someone for that- blame the moral police of your party. So, yeah, you're right, Keyes was a "filler" and a bad one at that. Ryan would have been a good candidate against Obama. Maybe, IL Repubs will figure that out and stop cowtowing to homophobic, busybody "values voters"

Anonymous said...

Cause, you know, Ryan's kinky sex fantasies with his WIFE- awful morals!!
Keyes horrific treatment of his gay daugter- yeah, that's cool, fit right in.

Values for ya.

Anonymous said...

Ernie, I'm sure you meant "debt" as opposed to "dept," but you're wrong on either count. The facts do not bear witness.

Gov. Bayh did balance the books by delaying payments, but the budget was balanced.

Of course, times were better. Our economy wasn't propped up by $1.5 billion a week in a tin-car war over phoney issues.

I shudder to think what this economy would be like without that federla sugar tit pushing money into defense contractors' hands.

Kinda like lunch at the Castleton Olive Garden. Garbage in, crap out.

indyernie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
indyernie said...

Delaying payment when an obligation is due is not balancing the budget; it’s prolonging the issue... Indiana‘s debt. Byah made dead beats out of the citizens of Indiana. Byah left Indiana in debt.

I recall America being attacked. I don't relish our country ever being at war, but some of us responded in the early 60's & 70's after a Democrat (Kennedy) started a "police action" that turned into one of the ugliest encounters ever. Then his successor another Democrat (Johnson) extended the conflict finally a Republican (Nixon) ended it.

I would never consider any war “tin-cup“, and I don't think anyone who has served Honorably, would either.

Thanks for the spelling lesson. I’ll do better next time.