LGBT blog The Bilerico Project offers a convincing collection of circumstantial evidence that points to Indiana Sen. (and über whiteboy) Evan Bayh as the frontrunner for Obama-rama’s VP slot. Post author Bil Browning says the announcement will come tomorrow morning.
The Washington Post’s political blog “The Fix” has some intersting arguments for and against Bayh, while maintaining that the overall list is still at least six deep.
Most intriguing in terms of arguments against is that no one really knows what exactly Bayh stands for. He has shown some leadership on the economic threat of China, but otherwise, “is known far more for his style of politics (post-partisan centrism) than any core belief system,” according to The Fix’s Chris Cillizza.
Hmm, square-jawed, corn-fed, midwestern whiteboy without a pre-determined set of issue prejudices. After taking heat from his core constituents on his FISA vote and his reversal on offshore drilling, ya think Obama is chomping at the bit to get someone else in the mix that he can use as his tough-stance Gumby? The sock puppet necessary for the ventriloquist act a liberal black man must pull-off to truly appeal to Midle America?
Obama is more like Bush that people would like to admit, at least in one respect: he needs his Cheney. Bush and Obama are the posterboys for their respective backers. Bush, the man-of-the-people who Midwesterners and Southerners would love to sit down and have a beer with. Obama, the Harvard grad, bleeding heart liberal (let’s not forget his Senate voting record), and smarter-than-thou citizen of the world.
The Obama campaign came out of the post-primary gates chock full of political expediency, a conflagration of calculated moves that combined to form his much-ballyhooed center shift. A necessary move when learning the lesson of someone like Dukakis who stuck by his left-leaning guns in the general election only to get trounced by Bush Sr.
In this respect, the Cheney to Obama’s Bush would naturally be someone like Bayh, as opposed to a Biden or a Dodd, and most certainly a Hillary. Someone without a political trademark who could stand tall on the issues du jour to battleground state blue collar whiteys while Obama returns to his ethereal pedestal of slippery eloquence.
Obama needs a nitty-gritty errand boy like Bayh. In perhaps the most scathing assessment of Obama’s political opportunism to date, Alex Castanellos details why he thinks Obama has already sunk his own ship:
When this young man with the flowing, passionate core, when this candidate without the solid-center changes positions and transforms himself as we watch, it leaves Americans much more in doubt about who he is and how he would lead us. It also reveals an Obama of unapproachable arrogance and inestimable self-regard: He appears confident voters will appreciate his superiority regardless of where he journeys or what he becomes to meet his political ambitions.
Reality or not, this is the current perception. The Steve Schmidt-led assault on Obama’s image from the McCain camp has successfully chiseled away at the once-impenetrable veneer of change and hope. A branding-strategy that ironically delivered Obama from a brutal primary against a rival with whom he shares many core values, but may ultimately sink him where the message is actually applicable.
Evan Bayh – ye of pasty, Caucasian, political paper mache – come on down and bring your overalls a shovel because there’s some digging to be done if tomorrow is indeed the biggest day of your life.
Tags: evan bayh, steve schmidt, veepstakes