[Hoot Gibson]

Bayh sees the writing on the wall and is trying to distance himself from the problems that he helped create. Bayh campaigns as a moderate but he has been a pretty reliable vote for almost every hare-brained liberal bill that has reached the floor.

I do not believe that Bayh will be out of politics very long - just long enough for enough moderate and independent voters to forget his voting record. I predict that Bayh will have a book on the market in a few months, as part of his effort to rewrite history and become a viable moderate. There is also an outside chance that he will make one of those "the party left me" conversions and become a Republican.

That being said, Bayh seems like a pretty sharp guy who would be a 100% improvement over Reid, Pelosi, Obama, or Biden.