The Buzz

• More chatter about Evan Bah today as the Senator from Indiana continues to hover at or near the top of Obama’s Veep short list. There is a bevy of top-notch positives that picking Bayh as a running mate would bestow on Obama; Bayh is super-popular in Indiana and could very well tip the state blue, he is another young and telegenic figure to add to the campaign, and he is a moderate centrist known for straddling the political divided on a number of issues. That last point is where Bayh gets into some trouble as a potential Veep. As a high-profile moderate, he was one of the most prominent Dem proponents of war in Iraq back in 2002 as the Senate prepared to vote on the war measure and continued that forceful support for the war well into 2003. Bayh’s history is obviously apparent to Obama and his campaign team to put him on the short list, and that decision makes it appear that the Iraq difference may not be a deal-breaker. But it does present some problems if Obama were to put Bayh on the ticket. First of, it would incense the Democratic liberal base who had been pushing hard for Obama through the primary strictly based on his opposition to the Iraq war and Hillary’s initial support and lukewarm backing for a withdrawal. There are already rumblings from the likes of MoveOn and other antiwar groups that a Bayh selection would be a big mistake and potentially turn away a good portion of liberals ready to organize for Obama as the election draws closer. Second, the choice of an initially pro-war Democratic Senator would present something of an inconsistent message from the Obama campaign. Voters could become confused as to where Obama’s stance on Iraq has shifted if he were to go with Bayh.

• And there’s always the Hillary factor in the Veepstakes. Picking Bayh would mean Obama went with a Midwestern moderate who voted for the Iraq war and endorsed Hillary in the Dem primaries. That would certainly set off some of HRC’s grass roots supporters.

• Dire and desperate memos from Hillary’s old uber-pollster Mark Penn have surfaced amidst the cache of documents associated with The Atlantic’s big Clinton primary expose. Penn directly told Hillary and the rest of her campaign team to use Obama’s exotic childhood background against him and paint their then-rival as somehow “un-American” and standing against “basic American culture.” - “I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values,” Mark Penn wrote in a March 2007 memo to Clinton. - Hillary ultimately dismissed this advice. But has the McCain campaign taken up Penn’s strategy and put it to use in the general race against Obama? The remarks about “American roots” and McCain’s questions about Obama’s patriotism seem to mesh very well. But will McCain eventually decide to utilize the real holy grail here; Obama’s Hawaiian and Indonesian childhood?

• One of the developments pointing to prospective Democratic success in both the presidential race and local contests has been the huge numbers of new voters registering in swing states and red states as Democrats. The Dem grassroots effort - bolstered by Obama’s primary organizations in many states - to register new voters and work to increase turnout has been a stunning success in the amount of registrations and when you crunch the numbers and look at just how much this could effect all levels of elections. There have been no accusations of shady dealings in the registration effort; until now, that is. Seeing how successful the Democrats have been, Republicans are now using tactics to try to paint these newly registered voters as ineligible and accuse the Dems of illegal methods in signing up voters. Virginia and Pennsylvania - two hotly contested swing states - are the initial targets of the GOP push to turn the tide on the Dem outreach movement. GOP strategists admit that somehow getting some percentages of the new Dem voters on the rolls tossed off is the only chance to stay competitive.

• McCain continued his tour through Pennsylvania today in what was supposed to be an effort at reaching out to PA voters hit hard by the economic crisis. But McCain’s obsession with the Russia/Georgia conflict took center stage as the GOP nominee again moved towards a hawkish stance against Putin and Medvedev’s “international aggression.” McCain even made a personal phone call to Georgian President Saakashvili to let him now that he supports their cause and that McCain feels that “today we are all Georgians.” Does McCain risk getting sidetracked by what could turn out to be an obscure conflict that merely confirms the fact that Russia wants to be a major international player? And when does McCain’s tough talk for Russia become scary for voters?

• Veep contender Tom Ridge got plenty of attention from McCain and the press as he traveled alongside JMac across the Keystone State yesterday. Ridge is surely on McCain’s Veep list, but no word on whether he made it to the short list. That could be doubtful as evangelicals and the GOP conservative base have made it abundantly clear that a Ridge running mate selection would be unacceptable for them. His record of bipartisanship on social and economic issues is too much for them to take along with McCain as the nominee.

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