Bayh: Obama hasn't asked me to join ticket

[IndianaGreen]

Bayh: Obama hasn't asked me to join ticket

By Mary Beth Schneider
Posted: August 5, 2008

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., told The Indianapolis Star today that Sen. Barack Obama has not asked him to be his running mate and that he's not expecting Obama to announce his vice presidential pick when Obama is in Indiana Wednesday.

Asked if he will be Obama's vice presidential choice, Bayh said; "I have no idea. You'd have to ask him."

Bayh will be introducing Obama at Wednesday's town hall meeting in Elkhart, but said he knows of no plans for a private meeting with Obama, even though both men are flying into northern Indiana tonight. The length of Obama's visit here -- he arrives at about 6:30 p.m. and isn't scheduled to leave until about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday -- had acceleratd already flying rumors that Bayh will be Obama's choice.

But Bayh said he believed the campaign was trying to add another stop in Indiana, accounting for the length of the visit.

Bayh said his wife, Susan; twin sons Nick and Beau; and his father, former Sen. Birch Bayh, will not be joining him on this trip -- one additional sign that the vice presidential announcement likely won't come Wednesday.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/NEWS05/80805080&GID=FqT6prcsqXEmuZj2ZY+mXCCxso/j5gztF2sWVdrYnCo%3D

[Myrina]

1. from Nuvo:

http://nuvo.net/articles/barack,_dont_pick_bayh/

Barack, don’t pick Bayh
by Steve Hammer Aug 6, 2008

Back in 2006, Evan Bayh spent millions of dollars exploring whether he should run for president. In a column at the time, I urged him not to do it because the most he could accomplish would be to embarrass the great state of Indiana.
Sen. Barack Obama reportedly has Bayh on the shortlist for his running mate. So I’ll use the same comments to address Sen. Obama, who heretofore has shown good judgment.Dude. Don’t do it. Please. Pick someone else. Anyone else. Being the governor of Indiana, a do-nothing senator from Indiana and the father of adorable twins does not qualify Bayh to be vice president.

What it does qualify him to be is the next Dan Quayle, which is to say, a vice presidential candidate who will become the laughingstock of the nation and provide material for Letterman, Leno and Conan for years.
Quayle was the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time, chosen by another wrong man, George H.W. Bush. Bayh risks becoming the reincarnation of Quayle.

And that would be disastrous for Indiana. It’s taken the state 20 years to recover from the bruising that Quayle gave the state’s image. By the time he was thrown out of office, Quayle had convinced most of America that Hoosiers were bumbling, semi-literate fools who can barely string a sentence together.

There’s just enough truth in that perception to sting. And sting Indiana it did. Who knows how many businesses decided not to relocate in Indiana because of Quayle? How many conventions decided to stay away from our state because organizations were convinced that Indiana was just like Mayberry, and Quayle was our Barney Fife?

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