Can Progressives Derail Bayh's VP Train via Facebook?

I would support Obama if he picked a turnip as his VP, but since so much of his candidacy is based on a willingness to listen to his supporters, this might be a chance to help make sure that he doesn't.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Sometime between now and the convention, Barack Obama will send me, and millions of other supporters a text message announcing his running mate. It is looking more and more likely that this breakthrough technology will be used to unveil a choice decidely un-breakthroughy: Evan Bayh.

I'm hearing word that Evan Bayh has at least a 50-50 chance of getting the vice-presidential nod and that the final decision will be made soon. Unfortunately, I don't have any other names to tell you so that you know what the alternatives are. The New York Times did a great job yesterday morning in explaining why the selection of Bayh would be problematic. It would be hard to fuck up Barack Obama's brand any worse than picking John McCain's honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. We really shouldn't have to say anything more than that.

If Evan Bayh is acceptable then maybe John McCain's judgment isn't so bad after all. I might add that Al From of the DLC wants Evan Bayh and so does Cokie 'Myrtle Beach' Roberts. Those are two big alarm-bells. And I'd really prefer it not to be the case that Team Obama is more interested in appeasing Al From and Cokie Roberts than they are concerned with enraging their base of support online. There are many of us that were in the long fight to win the nomination with Obama who made that commitment out of a desperate desire to see the DLC sidelined and a new generation of post-Bush thinking Democrats put in charge of the party. We're the same people that fought off Tim Roehmer and Harold Ford for DNC chairmen and gave you Howard Dean and the immensely successful 50-state strategy. We did not put in all that work in order to see the former DLC chairman put next in line for the presidency.

At about 2am last night after a gig in Austin, we launched 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh for VP on Facebook. We have about 99,000 to go but we are growing at the rate of about 100 names per hour now.

For the record -- I would support Barack Obama if he picked a turnip as his running mate, but since so much of Obama's candidacy is rooted in Obama's willingness to listen to his supporters, this might be a real chance to help make sure that he doesn't.

Please join 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh for VP and invite your Facebook friends.

Max and the Marginalized are a political band that does songs every week on The Huffington Post.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot