Super Surrogates

Our corporate sisters at National Journal are doing a breakfast event tomorrow featuring surrogates for each presidential campaign and moderators Linda Douglass with Ron Brownstein and Chuck Todd beginning at 8 at the Columbus Club at Union Station. You can RSVP here if you're so inclined.

Representing John McCain will be Lindsey Graham with Evan Bayh for Clinton and Dick Durbin for Barack Obama. I find the Clinton campaign's undying affection for Bayh, a thoroughly unimpressive centrist favorite, to be telling.

Comments

A mainly rural and conservative Midwestern state, Indiana has not voted Democratic in a Presidential election since 1964. It confirmed in 2004 its Republican leaning, giving an easy victory to George W. Bush.

Maybe the campaign's apparent affection for Bayh is meant to subliminally suggest that HRC is LBJ. In '64, that is, not '68.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | April 1, 2008 3:06 PM

Representing John McCain will be Lindsey Graham with Evan Bayh for Clinton and Dick Durbin for Barack Obama.

Do we really need three boring Senators arguing on behalf of three other Senators? How about a little variety people. Let's put Jack Nicholson, Oprah Winfrey, and Curt Schilling up there. THAT would be worth watching.

I miss Chuck Norris.

Posted by right | April 1, 2008 3:15 PM

Of all the Democratic Governors of the 1990s, two above all most embraced Bill Clinton's Third Way governing philosophy and political style: Evan Bayh and Howard Dean.

Bayh was an impressive Governor who returned Democrats to power for a generation and did some significant progressive things despite the Indiana electorate moving strongly to the right. He's been a serious disappointment as a US Senator especially given his legacy as the son of one of the most progressive US Senators in recent memory, as much for a basic lack of energy, activity, and commitment as for ideological reasons. My sense, though, is that he is a favorite of the Clintons because they see him as a philosophical sibling, and his gubernatorial career (and wife) quite strikingly mirror the Clintons' own situation.

Posted by dry_fish | April 1, 2008 3:18 PM

"I find the Clinton campaign's undying affection for Bayh, a thoroughly unimpressive centrist favorite, to be telling."

I find it telling how all the trust-fund scumbags opposed to universal healthcare like Matthew Yglesias and Marty Peretz label those who favor universal healthcare as racists.

Posted by Petey | April 1, 2008 3:19 PM

Petey, nobody called Evan Bayh a racist...

I think your cognitive dissonance is showing.

Posted by soullite | April 1, 2008 3:25 PM

Let's just hope Hillary's representative doesn't spend half his allotted time praising McCain.

Posted by Notorious P.A.T. | April 1, 2008 3:27 PM

"I find it telling how all the trust-fund scumbags opposed to universal healthcare like Matthew Yglesias and Marty Peretz label those who favor universal healthcare as racists."

Telling, indeed, Matthew, telling indeed!

"...featuring surrogates for each presidential campaign and moderators Linda Douglass with Ron Brownstein and Chuck Todd beginning at 8 at the Columbus Club at Union Station...Representing John McCain will be Lindsey Graham with Evan Bayh for Clinton and Dick Durbin for Barack Obama..."

YEESSH! Sounds ghastly... And though I don't mind facial hair, if anyone attends, please tell Todd to shave that frickin' 'tee off cause it doesn't look good on him..., oh, and "hugs and kisses".

Posted by Rihilism | April 1, 2008 3:35 PM

Lindsay Graham is your typical Bush Republican, full of lies and hatred. Hopefully Durbin calls him out.

Posted by 55 | April 1, 2008 3:48 PM

Everyone has surrogates these days.

I think I want a surrogate. George Clooney would be ideal. He could get into conversations with my boss and suavely slip in remarks like "I think there's been a lot of feeling lately that Ted is undercompensated."

Or "No one comes right out and says it, but I think we all know that Ted's rivals are not up to the task of managing Widget Distribution."

Posted by Ted | April 1, 2008 4:54 PM

Woah, when did Petey jump the shark?

Posted by Neo | April 1, 2008 5:00 PM

Let Senator Durbin explain why Senator Obama is the favorite of the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21YF7ggCG6g&eurl=http://news.google.com/

Posted by SLC | April 1, 2008 5:20 PM

I heard Evan Bayh's favorite flavor of ice milk is wintergreen.

Posted by Otto Man | April 1, 2008 5:27 PM

Bill & Hill like Bayh because they know he'll roll over and play dead for the "friends of Israel" and the neo-liberal money changers. He is Hillary's shoo-in for VP if God Forbid she should steal the nomination. Unlike Joe Lieberman, Bayh doesn't look like a whiny soft-shoe son of a parasitic liquor store owner.

Compare and contrast Bayh with a guy Obama likes - Jim Webb. If you can't tell the difference between dogshit or poundcake you have no business trying to be President.

Posted by Trevor | April 2, 2008 12:39 AM

In response to SLC, let Bayh explain why Clinton was number two after Giuliani in the Haaretz poll - and ahead of McCain. Obama was dead last - meaning the Zionist freaks didn't think he'd start a war with Iran his first week in office.

But they think Hillary will.

What do Zionist freaks know that Hillary supporters don't?

Maybe something about "The Family"? Maybe something about a certain Saudi "personal assistant"?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 2, 2008 1:51 AM

Matthew, I don't mean to be a troll, but weren't you briefly infatuated with Evan Bayh yourself? It was around January-March of 2005 after he made a good speech opposing Condi Rice's confirmation as Secretary of State up until he voted for the bankruptcy bill, at which point you seemed to lose interest in him.

Yeah, the Clintons have been impressed with Bayh for a long time. At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, they chose then-Governor Bayh to deliver the keynote address. He was supposed to symbolize the young New Democrat brand. I'm not all that impressed with him, quite frankly. He's been known to do a lot of liberal-bashing and "Democrats need to get serious about X" preening, without offering any ideas about X himself.

Woah, when did Petey jump the shark?

Petey jumped the shark around 2007, when John Edwards dropped his sunny centrist image from the last campaign and decided that an angry lefty image was the way to go. Petey supported Edwards back in 2003-4, too, and spent a lot of time trolling on various websites, calling Howard Dean, Joe Trippi, and liberal, Dean-sympathetic commenters scumbags and elitists who didn't understand the vast importance of adopting a DLC-style "depolarization" electoral strategy. But once Edwards basically decided to try and adopt the Dean model for his 2008 campaign and hired Trippi to work for him, Petey completely changed his outlook.

Remember that scene in 1984 where the Ministry apparatchik is haranguing the crowd:

The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried onto the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker's hand. He unrolled it and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia!

That's our Petey!

Posted by Another Chris | April 2, 2008 2:40 AM

Re Trevor

Mr. Trevor, supporter of terrorists and antisemitic cocksucker, launches an attack on Senator Liebermans' father. Unlike Mr. Trevor, at least Senator Lieberman knew who his father was.

Re Richard Steven Hack

Mr. Hack has written previously that President Obama would launch bombing attacks on Iran within 6 months after taking office. Apparently, he thinks that President Clinton wouldn't wait that long. As with Mr. Trevor, Mr. Hack fails to respond to the Youtube video showing Hamas terrorists supporting Senator Obama, obviously because they support such terrorists.

Posted by SLC | April 2, 2008 7:27 AM

"Mr. Trevor, supporter of terrorists and antisemitic cocksucker, launches an attack on Senator Liebermans' father. Unlike Mr. Trevor, at least Senator Lieberman knew who his father was." (SLC)

Uh, Slow-Late & Callow - I only support those terrorists who would ship you back to Haifa in an accordion. My father? I know the man well. He's a Federal Judge who thinks as I do that an anti-Semite used to be someone who hated Jews, but now it's someone whom Norman Bates-ian Israel-first Jews like you hate. i.e. Condi Rice, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, General Zinni, Walt and Mearshimer, Barack Obama, Jim Webb, Tony Judt, Philip Roth, Harold Pinter, and a lot of other quality individuals who don't believe we should allow a shitty, little Apartheid Terror State to run the world.

Posted by Trevor | April 2, 2008 3:47 PM

Re Trevor

1. Never having been to Haifa, I could hardly be shipped back there.

2. "He's a Federal Judge who thinks as I do that an anti-Semite used to be someone who hated Jews, but now it's someone whom Norman Bates-ian Israel-first Jews like you hate. i.e. Condi Rice, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, General Zinni, Walt and Mearshimer, Barack Obama, Jim Webb, Tony Judt, Philip Roth, Harold Pinter, and a lot of other quality individuals who don't believe we should allow a shitty, little Apartheid Terror State to run the world."

Gee, an apartheid, terror state that runs the world. My, my, how the tail wags the elephant. Having voted for Jim Webb in the 2006 election and having signed the petition to get him on the ballot, I would certainly be interested in knowing whether he agrees with this characterization of the State of Israel. In fact, I doubt that any of the individuals on the list, even including James Earl Carter would agree with this characterization.

But Mr. Trevor leaves off some other names on his list. Where are Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky? Aren't they also quality gentlemen according to Mr. Trevors' definition. How about Don Black, the proprietor of the stormfront web site. He would seem to be more in Mr. Trevors' camp then the folks on his list.

Posted by SLC | April 2, 2008 9:22 PM