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CLINTON-BAYH. A few weeks ago, poor Michelle Cottle of The New Republic published a great piece on Indiana Senator Evan Bayh�s presidential prospects the very week Bayh dropped out of the presidential race. Shortly thereafter, Bayh traveled to Iraq with fellow Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton, who is most assuredly not going to drop from the race just two weeks after announcing her exploratory committee, as Bayh did. That prompted Cottle to wonder in this week�s TNR about something I was also pondering: Are Clinton and Bayh thinking about, well, Clinton-Bayh? Cottle:
With his eternally polite, scrupulously attentive manner, Bayh couldn't help but look a bit like Hillary's courtier. Which started me wondering if Bayh's recent, unexpected announcement that he would not be running for president himself (less than two weeks after forming an exploratory committee, mind you) had anything to do with hints from Team Hillary regarding her future plans for a running mate�To avoid starting any rumors, let me stress that I've heard no such rumblings. Still, the two Senate centrists do make a lovely political couple.Other than the Hotline�s Chuck Todd, I seem to be one of the only people in Washington who thinks that candidates pairing up to run as a ticket through the primaries is a superb idea. I wrote a piece for The Washington Post in the summer of 2003 about the strategic advantages of doing this in the presidential race, and in late 2005 Todd and I wrote another piece about pre-primary tandems on the state level after Martin O�Malley picked his lt. governor running mate early in Maryland -- a move that threw O�Malley�s then-primary opponent Doug Duncan off balance.
If Hillary wants to knock Barack Obama on his heels, she could put Bayh (or better yet, Iowa�s Tom Vilsack?) on the ticket by, say, July 1. Having a running mate during the primary allows her to balance the ticket from the start; doubles the principles (and spouses) who can raise money and campaign; would take some of the spotlight off her; and reduces her risks of burnout or becoming overexposed. Of course, if Obama beats her to the punch �
--Tom Schaller
