Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) had, for all intents and purposes, already been running a presidential race for months. He had 15 trained, funded campaign aides, and as of a week ago, visited New Hampshire seven times. When Bayh noted two weeks ago that he was poised to create an exploratory committee, his presidential campaign was a foregone conclusion.
At least, it was. Bayh has decided to scrap his plans and skip the race.
Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana will not seek the presidency in 2008, saying he believes the odds of a successful run were too great to overcome.
“At the end of the day, I concluded that due to circumstances beyond our control the odds were longer than I felt I could responsibly pursue,” Bayh said in a statement Saturday. “This path — and these long odds — would have required me to be essentially absent from the Senate for the next year instead of working to help the people of my state and the nation.”
Bayh faced very long odds and almost certainly made the right decision skipping the race.
With this announcement in mind, it occurs to me that the Democratic presidential field may not be quite as enormous as expected. As recently as a few months ago, observers could name at least a dozen sure-fire, practically-already-running, credible candidates who would throw their hats in the ring early in the new year. Former Gov. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and Bayh were “obviously” running. Except they’re not.
Who knows, with a little luck we just might be able to keep the ’08 field to single digits.