Evan Bayh's decision to forego the 2008 campaign is an interesting one. Bayh joins with Mark Warner and Russ Feingold as serious candidates who, in an open year and facing a broad field, decided to ease off the trigger and unload the gun. And the three of them make for an illuminating bunch. Warner and Bayh were both supposed to uphold the New Democrat consensus, the triangulating Southern moderation perfected by Bill Clinton. Feingold, on the other hand, was supposed to play the insurgent, the serious lefty in a field Hillary had tilted right.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the caucuses. In presidential primaries, "space" is the definitional attribute. Niches get filled, interest groups sated, and constituencies satisfied. And so it has happened in the Democratic primary. Hillary has settled on the center, while all of the excitement and other candidates have veered to the left. Obama, Edwards, Gore -- say what you will, but this crew currently controls the buzz, the assumptions of "electability," and the excitement of the base. And every one of them is a progressive.. Warner and Bayh both dropped out because there was little space to Hillary's right and even fewer voters waiting in it. Feingold dropped out because he couldn't be Howard Dean -- the campaign was packed with progressives who appeared more likely nominees than he. The dynamics of this field are friendly only to liberals, and serious, electable ones at that. Indeed, for better or worse, this is the first presidential in recent memory where the initial action and jostling is happening in the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Howard Dean should be proud: He really did change the party.
At Tapped, too.
