Bayh rules out White House bid in 2008

[oberliner]

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record) of Indiana announced on Saturday he will not seek the presidency in 2008, saying he believes the odds of a successful run were too great to overcome.

"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," Bayh said in a statement. "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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061216/ap_on_el_pr/bayh2008

[Delphinus]

1. Smart. n/t

[SharonRB]

2. One down

Maybe Hillary will determine the same thing. She has a job to do in the Senate and she should stay there.

One less person I have to learn more about! And now we can take him off of the DU polls.

[European Socialist]

3. Good. Just a DINO anyway.

[southerncrone]

4. That seems like a responsible attitude

Wish more felt that way. Brings up the most glaring issue that to run for Prez, one must spend too much time fund raising on top of campaigning. Always too much of a trade off. :dilemma:

I hope he sticks to his guns & DOES work to help the people of IN & the rest of us.

Lord knows we need help cleaning up this pile of dung left by the sh*thead Repukes!:grr:

[LiberalFighter]

9. One of the ways to make that happen is...

to make Indiana a toss-up state so that the Republicans have to spend some of their resources in this state.

[skipos]

5. 49% approval from IN Reps, 58% from IN indies, 71% from IN Dems

Yet many DUers will call him a DINO.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollTrack.aspx?g=a285d761-f796-4231-a64e-c963257492e4&x=873,2

[hippiechick]

6. You vastly over-estimate the intelligence level of Hoosiers ...

.... they just like Evan because "he's one of ours". If you published the same voting record and campaign platform for a Dem from somewhere else, Hoosiers would lambaste him/her.

People here tend to stick with their own because of some twisted xenophobia, not because of the merits of their actions.

[LiberalFighter]

11. A Democrat in one state is not necessarily the same as one in another state

Another factor that favors Bayh was that of his father Birch Bayh, a former Senator.

I would also bet that if the former Governor Frank O'Bannon (He was also Bayh's Lt Gov) and Evan Bayh the Governor before Frank O'Bannon were to run for Governor in the General Election with no other candidates O'Bannon would win easily.

I don't know of anything that Evan Bayh has done that has been really worthwhile to America.

I do know that Birch Bayh was involved in passing Title IX, 25th Amendment and the 26th Amendment as well as the ERA which was not passed.

Apparently Birch Bayh is involved in a coalition to use the popular vote instead of the electoral college.

Evan Bayh has small feet for the big shoes that his daddy had.

[davidinalameda]

7. in other words

I didn't have a snowball's chance in getting the nomination

[gulliver]

8. Buh-Bayh.

Someone had to do it.

[IndianaGreen]

10. This is great news for all Indiana Democrats

Had Bayh run it would have made it more difficult for supporters of other candidates to get the support of Democratic officials.

[ctaylor721a]

12. $10M

I heard Bayh raised $10M for this campaign; I wonder who he'll transfer it to (perhaps his senate fund?)