Why has Evan Bayh decided not

[malaise]

to run in 2008?

[Selatius]

1. He voted for that horrible "bankruptcy reform" act that assaulted working class interests?

Or maybe he believes Al Gore is going to throw his hat into the ring?

[malaise]

6. Thanks all

That was a quick exit from the race.

[TwilightZone]

2. He felt he couldn't win, for one:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16235397/

[mdmc]

3. Isn't he one of those that fucked us on the bankruptcy vote?

Why would we want him to run?:shrug:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. That dog of a bill...

Is the albatross that should be hung around the neck of every venal mofo that voted for it. Let them drag it around behind themselves like a prolapsed colon.

[mdmc]

5. Hillary didn't vote for it, but I plan to ask her about it.

I will have a hard time supporting anyone who thought it was a good idea.

[never cry wolf]

7. Here's one take from the Tribune blog today

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/12/obama_effect_go.html

Obama effect: Good-bye Bayh

Posted by Michael Tackett at 8:54 am CST

The Obama effect has claimed its first casualty.

Sen. Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat with a gold-plated resume and a long-simmering presidential ambition, has decided to call it quits in his bid for the White House less than a month after it began.

Though Bayh had more than $10 million dollars immediately available to him from his senate fundraising account, with the prospects of raising several million more to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, it seems that the increasingly likely candidacy by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has forced Bayh from the race.

Bayh had been a successful two-term governor of the Hoosier state, winning for the first time in 1988. Among his gubernatorial colleagues was Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who often said that he thought Bayh had the makings of a president.

Clinton thought so much of Bayh that he named him the keynote speaker of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1996. But Bayh's hardly-memorable remarks did little to stoke interest in him nationally.

Clearly, he was lacking in the kind of star power that Obama has generated. And the question now is what other candidates might step back from the starting line when facing the likelihood of Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York draining the field of money, talent and attention.

In an interview with the Tribune on Thursday, Obama said he was quite confident he could easily raise $50 to $60 million for a White House run, a staggering amount of money. Those table stakes are almost certain to scare others away.