Why didn't Obama pick Evan Bayh?

[LastMcGovernite]

There was also a massive move on facebook against Evan Bayh becoming Veep in the immediate weeks before Biden was chosen.  I don't know if that had any impact, but it is worth mentioning.

I also think tone may have had a role- Bayh exudes the 'Washington-ness'- careful, cautious, milquetoast characteristics that Obama was trying to avoid.  Being a senator's son (even a truly great senator like Birch Bayh) didn't help.  Granted, Biden is in some ways a prototypical Washington man, but at least he had a scrappy upbringing in Scranton that you could use to help shape the narrative.

It would have also a co-chair on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which would have clashed rather jarringly with Obama's dovish inclinations.

I don't dislike Bayh- he probably would have been my second choice after Biden- but I appreciate now how much he would have contrasted with Obama's style.  He would have provided dissonance, rather than balance.