Bayh would be a dreadful pick.  Just what we need, a former DLC Chair.  That organization is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party.  I hope that Obama and his team have not made a strategic decision to move to the center for the general election campaign.  If indeed they have, it's bad thinking.  First, the 'center' ain't what it used to be; over the past 30 years the Republicans have waged a very successful campaign to move the midpoint of the ideological spectrum so far right that no self-respecting Democrat should have anything to do with the center as it is currently defined.  The FISA debate was a perfect example of this dynamic; those of us who took the very traditional American view that the President ought to respect the rule of law and honor the Constitution were dismissed as shrill leftists.

Second, shifting positions on issues gives McCain an opportunity to accuse Obama of flip-flopping.   (Obama changed his position on NASA funding yesterday while speaking in a Florida town that is entirely dependent on the space industry, surprise, surprise....)

Third, jumping around on policy positions causes Obama's base to wonder exactly where he stands, and opens the crack of doubt about whether he truly is a new breed of politician who means what he says and follows through on his promises.

I realize that we can't hold Obama to impossibly high standards of ideological purity--  but now that the general election campaign is under way, I'm seeing a consistent pattern of him moving away from being the candidate he presented himself as during the primary.  All of his motion is in the same direction-- towards the status quo.