Evan Bayh not Running for Re-Election

Obama and the Democrats would be doing fine if they had someone -- anything -- leading the way legislatively other than Reid. What a sad excuse for a Senate majority leader. He's barely a Democrat, yet can't win over any Republicans other than Snowe.

 

Trust me, I want a greater Republican gain and I hope Obama DOES campaign.

You can compare Obama's first year to Reagan and Clinton's first year all you want, but they are so-very-empty comparisons. There was nothing even close to the Tea Party Movement in 1982 or 1994. Not even in the same galaxy. Every word Obama speaks makes the movement even stronger.

The 1994 GOP takeover of Congress was the result of a brilliant strategy by Gingrich in putting together "The Contract With America." While there is nothing out there similar to The Contract, in 1994 there was nothing at all similar to the Tea Party Movement.

There were low approval ratings in 1982 and 1994, but nowhere near the anger.

 

As a voter in the so-called Obama generation (the 18-to-30 crowd), a couple things:

Health care became a major issue fast with younger voters, but it wasn't among the top major issues with younger voters. Most people in that generation supported Obama (and support Dems in general recently) because they don't give a shit about the Republican talking points. The anti-gay, "they're coming for your guns," Arabs-are-bad, let's go to war thing never registered with that generation, and the only place to run when one side is doing that is to the other one. Health care, like every other major piece of legislation, became a fear campaign with younger voters just like it did with everyone else. Young voters really aren't that different than anyone else: they'll vote with their minds on the simple yes-or-no votes, and they'll vote with their hearts and their fears on the complex issues.

That said, I've had a lot of reasoned discussions with people in that age group from both sides of the aisle about health care. Sure, there are people who just don't pay attention and will go to the talking points, but there are also a lot of people in that generation who are paying attention. Whether or not it's different from past generations or from older generations I'm not sure.

 

Keep telling yourself that you've tapped into a source of new GOP voters. Keep telling yourself that the Tea Partiers are frustrated OBAMA voters.

Also, keep telling yourself that the Tea Partiers are automatic Republican votes, and that they're not gonna go supporting a bunch of fringe third-party and 'let's drag the GOP as far right as we can' candidates.

I asked you last week whether the Tea Partiers were (a) ex-Obama voters, which seems stunningly unlikely; (b) people who couldn't bother to vote last time, which certainly calls their love of country into question; or (c) former McCain voters who don't mean a damn thing in terms of electoral math.

You never answered. I wasn't exactly surprised.

 

Daniels will be term-limited out of office in 2012. Indiana allows a governor to only serve 8 years in a 12-year span, and Daniels is in his second term.

While Daniels appears to be positioning himself for a DC run, I see himself posturing himself more for a post as Secretary of Treasury or Secretary of Education, more than the guy in the White House. He doesn't really want the limelight of having the top job. He would be a great GOP candidate -- one focused more on economic issues than the social ones. Reminds me a lot of a really short, not quite as articulate Reagan ... but I just don't see him being the top of the ticket.

Haven't heard any speculation about Bayh running for governor to try to repair his reputation, although he's a better executive than he is a legislator. He was an excellent governor during his first eight years -- and for me to praise a Democrat takes a lot of work .

 

I'm still not sold on the Tea Party as a national movement. I think it's more of a collection of separate state movements. The Tea Party voters in a place like Kentucky are nothing new -- Kentuckians generally aren't D or R voters anyway -- and if you think the GOP is going to build a national base by moving to the right of people like McCain and Bush, well, I don't see it.

Like I said in the other thread, when a Tea Partier gets more than 40 percent of the vote in ANY election, much less a general, it might start to become a movement. So far, it's a lot of hubbub about nothing, considering we still don't have any evidence that a Tea Party candidate can win an election (and Scott Brown is not a tea partier, so don't try it).

 

Look, the bottom line is we can't pay for what we want, period... GOP or Demos in control. We can't get it by taxing people because most people are cash-strapped already. We're inevitably headed toward a lower-end European lifestyle where former things for granted will become luxuries. We'll either get it by forcing ourselves to do without (a Republican controlled government) or by taxing ourselves into oblivion (the liberals' way). Either way, the middle class is checking into hospice. Do I like that? Hell no, but explain to me how that's unavoidable.

 

I forgot about the term limits.

A lot of the DC media I read was keying on the "I'm a better executive" comment Bayh made as an indicator that he might want to run for governor again.

And I get the same impression of Daniels as you. He's a big-timer, an intellectual heavyweight who has seemed to put himself above all the partisan wrangling over social issues that don't really matter. And he's going to do something big in this federal government. But I've never gotten the sense that he's the type of guy who wants to be president, just because he seems to turn down any opportunity to talk about it.

I'm a hard-core Democrat, but I have a ton of respect for Daniels.

 

The so-called "anger" is as phony as Sarah Palin. Where was all this anger when Shrub and his yes-men in Congress were running up the debt and running two wars off-budget from 2001-07?

 

It's interesting, because the local media (at least the TV/radio news), haven't said anything about him being governor.

I'm pretty far to the right, but Bayh was a very strong, centrist governor. I never had any problems with him in that role.

 

Reagan approval rating (1/83) 33 percent, 56 percent disapproval. 22 months later he won in a landslide.

The Tea Party movement will die like all "third party" groups die once the economy improves and another group will come along when it goes down again.

 

I was going to say the same thing, Crimsonace, about Daniels being termed out and a possibility that Bayh may want to return to Indy and be governor again. I wouldn't dismiss it.

Bayh has always been a sexy name and probable pick with the Dems. Matter of factly, his old man and him has been favorites to move up the ladder.

I think it's fair to ask whether Bayh wants to be prez or not, because he's been more quiet in the Senate than he was as governor, methinks.