The cover of Time is 'Special Issue: The Democrats,' with a DEBUT COLUMN BY MIKE MURPHY and a very tight cover shot of Senator Obama. Time's Karen Tumulty concluded, based on comments he made in an interview for the cover package, that his veep pick is 'either Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana (low profile, both executive and foreign policy experience, but a supporter of the Iraq War), or a surprise whose name has not been circulating on the pundits' short lists.'
Obama told Karen and David Von Drehle, when asked what the pick would tell the country about himself: 'Hopefully, the same thing that my campaign has told the American people about me. That I think through big decisions. I get a lot of input from a lot of people, and that ultimately, I try to surround myself with people who are about getting the job done, and who are not about ego, self-aggrandizement, getting their names in the press, but our focus on what's best for the American people.
'I think people will see that I'm not afraid to have folks around me who complement my strengths and who are independent. I'm not a believer in a government of yes-men. I think one of the failures of the early Bush Administration was being surrounded by people who were unwilling to deliver bad news, or who were prone to simply feed the president information that confirmed his own preconceptions.'
Here's Time's in-depth look on his veep thinking and other stuff.
There has also been some criticism that you've helped fuel that idea that the election is about you — for example, with the huge rallies.
You know, Karen, I give full credit to the Karl Rove acolytes who are working for John McCain and one of their general strategies is to try to turn strengths into weaknesses. The enthusiasm and involvement at the grass roots that we've seen in my campaign, I consider a strength. That's one of the reasons we are able to compete in 18 states, but those crowds and those rallies, those people have not come out because of my speechmaking.
They've come out because they understand what's at stake in this election. And that's not going to change, and we have small town halls or we have round tables like we had this morning, whatever the venue, the message is going to be the same, that somebody needs to be fighting for America's families in Washington. We've got to stop having the agenda set by special interests and lobbyists and I'm the person who's best equipped to bring that change about.
More VP buzz buzz
Bayh goes head to head with Gov. of Minnesota and possible McCain veep Tim Pawlenty.
Bayh's bag incident
Bayh's risk and rewards:
Bayh’s support of authorizing force in Iraq stands in sharp contrast to Obama’s oft-stated view that he showed the good judgment to oppose the conflict from the start. After his vote, Bayh in early 2003 joined McCain as an honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which made regime change in Iraq its central cause.
“He was not only wrong, he was aggressively wrong,” said Tom Andrews, national director of the Win Without War coalition, referring to Bayh. “In my view, he would contradict if not undermine the Obama message of change, turning a new page on foreign policy and national security.”
Bayh was unavailable for an interview, but his spokesman, Eric Kleiman, contrasted his evolution on the war with the position of McCain, saying that McCain has said he would cast the same vote again. “Sen. Bayh has shown the judgment that we need to admit that mistakes were made and we need to learn from them,” Kleiman said.
