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Three reasons in ascending order of importance:
1) The obvious reason to pick Bayh is that, without him, Obama probably has no chance of carrying Indiana. Even with Bayh, it's a stretch, but without him it's hard to imagine.
2) A different reason is that Bayh clearly meets the two principal requirements for the VP spot. He creates no obvious problems for the ticket and will be seen as someone who could assume the presidency on the first day if necessary. He served two successful terms as governor of Indiana and has been a senator for 10 years, including stints on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees. Regardless of what one thinks of the votes he made as senator, it would be very difficult for the media or the Republicans to say that Bayh was unqualified or underqualified. This is of special importance for Obama because they certainly will try to make that argument about him. Not giving them more ammunition by picking a running mate with a thin resume would be a good move. Now, obviously, several of the other potential candidates meet these requirements too (e.g, Biden and Clark), but a few maybe have problems on this score (e.g., Kaine and Sebelius).
3) My main reason for favoring Bayh is that I think he complements Obama well, in the way that Gore complemented Clinton in 1992. In the Obama-Bayh case, we have two young Midwesterners, with young families; both are noted for their distaste for the partisanship that afflicts Washington; both talk about working across the aisle. Obama is somewhat to the left of the Democratic party's center; Bayh is somewhat to its right (though not as far as some people here assert). While they are by no means ideological soulmates, together Obama and Bayh represent the viewpoints of the bulk of Democrats nationally, as well as those of many independents and some Republicans. On ideological grounds, this ticket might have wide appeal. On temperamental grounds, it might have even more appeal: a dollop of Midwestern reasonableness to help wash away the bitterness of the Bush-Cheney years.
Besides ideology, people often fault Bayh for his blandness, his boringness. They say he is too "vanilla." As I've said in other threads, I actually view this as an asset. Besides the experience question, the most dangerous weapon the Republicans are going to use against Obama is his alleged "exoticism." They're going to try to scare people into thinking Obama is foreign, radical, not-one-of-us. They're going to use his name, his parentage, his childhood years in Indonesia (as well as in far off Hawaii), and all the smears (madrassa education, secret Muslim, birth certificate), to try to make people view Obama as "not really American." More than the other candidates, I think Bayh -- because of both his vanilla-ness and his middle-of-the-road positions -- counters this line of attack. He comes across as the All-American boy. By choosing Bayh, Obama associates himself and his campaign with this middle-of-the-road, All-American-ness. And I think that's what he needs. Much more than excitement or charisma, Obama needs to build a solid bridge to the middle.
In his now infamous memo, Mark Penn argued Hillary Clinton should fight Obama by trying to own the word American. He argued: "Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century." This repetition of the word middle is telling. Penn was trying to make voters scared of Obama, trying to make Obama seem to be a fringe character, a radical, not a person of the safe middle ground. That's what McCain is going to try too. Because Bayh is so manifestly of the middle -- even in looks, he and his family personify an (idealized) version of middle America -- he can help Obama fight this strategy.
I especially look forward to the visual at the convention in which Bayh, his beautiful wife, and their two school-age children (boys) stand next to Obama, his beautiful wife, and their two school-age children (girls). I imagine viewers at home, who might be susceptible to the idea that Obama is too exotic or too foreign, looking at this scene and thinking: "Hey, this (the Obama family) is really just another version of that (the Bayh family). I know this. This is familiar. I'm comfortable with this. Nothing to be scared of." If I can be permitted a tortured (and possibly silly) metaphor, I think we win if people uncertain of Obama can come to view him as just the chocolate to Bayh's vanilla. Different but still good, and not at all scary.
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