Bayh was part of the problem, not the solution. It is easy to be the centrist and the moderate when you are actually not for anything in particular. He was mister status quo himself.
I generally don't agree with Ross Douthat, but this was pretty spot on:
The Emptiness of Evan Bayh - Ross Douthat Blog - NYTimes.com
key point:
Quote:
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"His big issue was supposed to be deficit reduction, but you wouldn’t catch him dead proposing anything remotely like Paul Ryan’s fiscal roadmap, with its detailed list of programs to be reshaped and reduced. (Bayh preferred the “bravery” of punting the issue to a commission.) On foreign policy, he was a liberal hawk on every vote except the hard ones: He backed the Iraq invasion in 2003 and takes a hard line on Iran today, but in the debate over the surge, when being hawkish was suddenly costly, he sided with the doves. Wherever the Beltway conventional wisdom settled, there was Evan Bayh — and he was rewarded for it with endless presidential and vice-presidential chatter, which has followed him, absurdly, even now that he’s announced his retirement."
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