E-mail a friendSen. Evan Bayh
airdate August 27, 2008
Indiana senator assesses Sen. Biden's speech and shares what the VP runner-up experience has been like. (1:32)
Full interview. (8:33)
Sen. Evan Bayh
Tavis: We are live once again here in Denver as night three has just wrapped up inside the Pepsi Center. This night highlighted by speeches by former President Bill Clinton, vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, and a surprise appearance by Barack Obama himself.
I'm pleased now to be joined in our studio tonight by the senator from my home state, Evan Bayh. He of course was one of just a few people on Barack Obama's short list for running mate. Senator Bayh, nice to have you on the program.
Sen. Evan Bayh: Good to be with you again, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by apologizing for that technical glitch we had getting on the air tonight, but we're glad you're here, and two guys from Indiana are gonna make this up to you. Anyway, I'm glad to have you here.
I was honored - honored? Honored? Yeah, honored - honored, but it was surreal to be sitting there tonight watching Joe Biden's speech with my senator from Indiana who was on the short list -
Bayh: I was in good company, Tavis.
Tavis: Yeah, well, please, that's how I feel. A mutual admiration society here. But it was surreal watching it with you because I'm thinking, sitting next to you, that you must be thinking that that could have been you while Biden was speaking. Yes, no?
Bayh: Well, the thought crossed my mind, Tavis, but Joe Biden is a good person, he's very strong on national security and foreign policy. As you could see, he's a good, regular guy with a wonderful family, and I think he's gonna relate very well to the economic problems that the middle class is facing in this country, and that's one of the defining issues in this election.
So I think he's a great choice, and I support him 100 percent.
Tavis: Before I go forward, let me go backwards right quick. What was it like for those three days with media trucks stalking your house and you and your wife and your kids trying to figure out what's - what was that period like?
Bayh: Well, it was a little surreal. I had to get dressed up in the morning to go out and get the newspaper rather than just kind of going out in my pajamas and bare feet, but. (Laughter) And my kids kind of wondered what it was all about. But look, it was an honor, Tavis. It was an honor to be considered, and I'm so grateful to Barack.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd be happy to go through it because the one thing that matters here is that we get this country heading in a better direction. And I'm happy to help him in my current capacity, and when he called to tell me the news he said, "Look, I'm going to need you in the campaign, I'm going to need you when we win to help lead this country, and I'm proud to do that for him in any way I can.
Tavis: What's the race looking like in our home state of Indiana as we speak?
Bayh: It's dead even. Polls have Barack, if you average them out, up about a point, and that's significant. Think about that. John Kerry lost Indiana by 21 points, Al Gore lost by 16. Barack is running dead even. So in our - and it's the result of a couple things. First, Barack's ability to inspire young people, people who have been on the sidelines, to get involved, to take charge of their country once again.
We've got 150,000 new people registered in Indiana, that's number one. Number two, out there in the heartland, even Independents, moderate Republicans, they can't take four more years of this. We're hurting economically. Healthcare costs, college costs, job losses - they need a change, and they know Barack offers that change, and John McCain, who's not a bad man, but he really offers more of the same. So you put those two things together, our home state could go either way.
Tavis: But what does it mean, though, to the McCain camp, looking at these number in Indiana tonight, Indiana - other than you - are reliably red state, certainly in presidential elections. What's the McCain camp thinking when they see that Indiana is in play?
Bayh: Well, they haven't done anything yet. Barack is running TV ads, he's got a couple dozen offices, he's got paid staff on the ground, they're registering, they're organizing. He's competing in Indiana, and John doesn't even have an employee in our state. They had to have somebody from Michigan call in to comment about his last visit to Indiana.
So you know Hoosiers, we're proud people. We don't want to be taken for granted. Barack's come to our state, he's listening to us, he's competing for our votes, and I think people would be impressed by that.
Tavis: What do you make so far of the effort at unity at this convention? We of course had Hillary Clinton last night, who electrified this place. President Bill Clinton comes in tonight. Have the Clintons done what they were supposed to do? Is that conversation dead now about where they're going to be as individuals, Bill and Hillary? Is the conversation dead now about what women are going to do who supported her? Is that conversation about unity resolved?
Bayh: Well, it ought to be resolved, because in fact it is resolved. But you know how the - and I don't want to comment on the media, but if you can find two disgruntled people in a crowd of 10,000, well, suddenly they become the story. Everybody else is holding hands and working together - well, maybe that's not so newsworthy.
But I think she got it just right last night, and that is that this is more important than personalities, and it's even more important than our party. This is about the people back home who need our help, who need a change in direction, and all of us, regardless of whether they were for Hillary or for Barack Obama, we're in this together now to get him elected president of the United States because the country deserves better than what we've had.
Tavis: Let me ask you about these issues of a foreign policy, because Obama clearly picks Biden in part because he brings foreign policy gravitas to the ticket. You would have done the same thing in your own way because that's one of your committees - you're an expert in these foreign affairs matters.
Tell me how you think the Democrats, even with Biden on the ticket, run against John McCain, who is a war hero? Everybody that speaks tonight, from Clinton to Biden, they have to give the guy his props on his patriotism, on his service to the country. I'm wondering how this foreign affairs issue is really going to play, even with Biden on the ticket.
Bayh: Well, the first thing you want in a president of the United States, Tavis, is sound judgment, right? And what John McCain is going to be saying is, "Look at my long experience. I've got the experience to lead us in these dangerous times." But that experience has consistently led him to make the wrong judgments. He was wrong about going to war in Iraq, he's been wrong about how to get us out of Iraq, he was wrong to ignore Afghanistan when Barack Obama was calling for us to step up and focus on Afghanistan, which after all the place from which we were attacked.
So just consistently, John has been wrong on these things. So it's not a question just of experience, it's a question of who's going to get it right, and Barack has consistently shown that kind of judgment, and after all, that's what you need in a commander-in-chief.
Tavis: When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, I had a great experience there and obviously I mention Indiana all the time, I loved growing up there. And yet I was always aware that I was an African American in a state that was overwhelmingly White. I was completely blown away, looking at my home state, when I saw how competitively Obama ran in the primary against Hillary. He lost, as you know, but it was a very close race.
He ran competitively there. Now we're discussing tonight that Indiana is in play as we speak. Have we made too much out of the race factor in this campaign when you see a state like Indiana in play?
Bayh: Well, Tavis, I think it would be naïve to say that it's just not anybody's mind, but I do think it's been made too much of. I think that is a small group of people who are motivated by those kind of things; frankly, people who are influenced by those kind of thoughts, probably aren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway for a whole host of reasons.
And I really do think that what matters to people, even some who in the past might have been influenced by those kind of things, if their job is at stake, if their healthcare's on the line, if their pension's insecure, if their family is struggling economically, well, that's going to be more important than some of these other things. And our state, just like the country, made a journey on some of these things, and the vast majority of Hoosiers just don't care about that kind of stuff.
And that's a good thing, and we're going to focus on the things that really do matter, which is who's best equipped to pick this country up and head us in a better direction, and that matters a whole lot more than some of these other things.
Tavis: So the one guy we haven't heard from as yet, of course with that brief surprise appearance to night by Mr. Obama, he's the guy we're waiting to hear from, there are any number of questions about him filling in the gaps tomorrow night. What's your sense of what he ought to do, has to do, with this national, international platform tomorrow night to quell rumors, concerns, trepidation, fears about who he really is?
Bayh: I'd say a couple things. First, he needs to tell his life story. I think a lot of folks don't know he was raised by a single mother, didn't really know his father. He got a wonderful education and could have gone off to Wall Street and made millions of dollars. Instead, he dedicated himself to community service and helping the less fortunate on the South Side of Chicago.
He's got the kind of values that Americans and the kind of life story that Americans, I think, can relate to, and folks who don't follow politics on a regular basis like you and me just probably aren't aware of that. So he needs to introduce himself that way. And then, Tavis, I would advise him to focus squarely on those bread-and-butter, economic kitchen table issues, because that's really where Americans are hurting.
He's going to be a good commander-in-chief. He'll be strong, but also smart on national security. We've tried one but not the other these last eight years; now we need both. But really, it's those economic issues - talking to people about where they live, folks who are at risk of losing their homes, trying to keep food on the table, those kinds of things - paying for healthcare, that kind of thing. He's got to lay out his agenda, and he's got some great ideas that focuses on those things very squarely.
Lay that out to people. Say, you put your trust in me, here's what we're gonna do to actually make tangible progress in your daily lives.
Tavis: Senator, always glad to have you on the program.
Bayh: Tavis, good to be with you, my friend.
Tavis: Thanks for coming to see us. You too, my friend.
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