A Veep Debate Preview With Bayh and Pawlenty?

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A Veep Debate Preview With Bayh and Pawlenty?

August 17, 2008 4:25 PM

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe and Julia Bain report: In what may have been a preview of vice presidential debates to come, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., squared off Sunday at the outset of a week when Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is expected to select his running mate for the Democratic presidential ticket.

But despite all the veepstakes speculation swirling around them, Bayh and Pawlenty, rumored to be strong possibilities to share the tickets of Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., respectively, both avoided commenting on the topic.

"We may make news this morning, Bob, but it is not going to be that," Bayh told CBS' Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." "So, I hate to disappoint you, but nothing to report today."

"Same answer here," echoed Pawlenty.

Following the show, Pawlenty was again asked about the vice presidential rumors and, again, refused to discuss them.

"Sen. McCain's going to have a lot of wonderful people to consider as a potential running mate and I'm just happy to help him as a volunteer because I believe he's an epic, courageous leader and the right person for the job of president of the United States, so I'm just happy to support him," Pawlenty told reporters outside CBS' Washington bureau. "I don't talk about the vice presidential stuff because I think it's mostly speculation, and I've just stopped talking about it."

Instead of dealing with the veepstakes buzz, Bayh and Pawlenty engaged in a discussion on foreign affairs that let the surrogates tout each of their party's candidates and attack the other's. At the end of a week when the Russia-Georgia conflict became the primary topic on the campaign trail, Bayh criticized McCain for saying that "today, we are all Georgians" and refusing to rule out military action in the Caucasus.

"We are not all Georgians now," said the Hoosier State senator. "If we were Georgians and the Russians were invading our country and killing our people, we'd be in a state of war. And clearly, that's not what we want. And John sometimes, he's a good person, but he's a little bit given to this kind of bellicose rhetoric, which has a tendency to inflame conflicts rather than to diffuse them, and that's not what you want in a president."

"Sen. McCain has said we need to deal with this aggressively," Pawlenty argued. "And one of the questions this crisis raises is, who do you want sitting across the table from Vladimir Putin and people like him, John McCain or Sen. Obama? And I think the answer is Sen. McCain, and that's for obvious reasons, with his experience in national security, military affairs, his clarity, his strength, and his judgment in these matters."

Bayh, who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, accused McCain and President Bush of being "so obsessed with Iraq" that "we dropped the ball" on the Russia-Georgia situation. "If we'd listened to Sen. Obama and his judgment, perhaps we wouldn't be here today."

But the two surrogates did not limit their discussion to the Caucasus crisis, soon turning to other national security matters. Bayh argued that Obama had been right, not only about Russia and Georgia, but also about other pressing foreign affairs issues.

"I would trust, as commander in chief, the person who got Iraq right, Afghanistan right, Iran right, who knows that we need to break our addiction to imported oil, get our budget in shape, strengthen our military. That's the kind of judgment, that's the kind of strength I want in a commander in chief."

Pawlenty retorted that Obama, in an interview with ABC News' Terry Moran last month, said that even had he known then what he knows now about the surge in Iraq, he would vote against it.

"This is just one example of many of his, I think, naivete when it comes to these matters," stated the Minnesota governor, accusing Obama of "a startling lack of judgment."

"Tim, you opposed the surge," Bayh immediately replied. Pawlenty refuted that allegation, saying, "I was skeptical of it because I thought it was too late."

After Saturday evening's joint McCain-Obama appearance at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, Pawlenty attempted to highlight the differences between McCain's "crisp, decisive" comments and Obama's "deeply conflicted, halting, wandering" answers.

In response, Bayh defended Obama's performance and hit out at McCain for running a negative campaign. Specifically, Bayh took issue with the presumptive Republican nominee not denouncing Jerome Corsi's book "The Obama Nation," which is harshly critical of the Democratic lawmaker.

"I deeply regret the negative tone that too often creeps into American politics," he said, "and I wish that Sen. McCain would take the opportunity to denounce this scurrilous book that's come out against Barack Obama, making all sorts of lies and allegations against him. The old John McCain would denounce that. The new John McCain has embraced those kinds of tactics. That is unfortunate. We don't need that in politics today."

Despite their disagreements, the two lawmakers were still able to have "a very civil discussion," as Schieffer described it. Whether they might be having another discussion at the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2 in St. Louis remains to be seen.

August 17, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (11)

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Obama-Bayh '08

Posted by: Steve | Aug 17, 2008 5:43:45 PM

I am tired of this "judgement and experience" argument. Who said that Obama is the standard bearer of judgement? What exactly has he accomplished that would make him the definition of judgement? Certianly not the issue of the Iraq war....he wasn't in the senate at the time, so he did not vote on it, so he can not use that as an issue of "judgement". How about sitting 20 years in racist church, is that judgement? How about voting "present" more times than any other senator, is that "judgement"?

McCain has proven that he is the beacon of both experience and judgement, as well has heroism, patriotism, and devotion to this country. I honestly can't say what Obama stands for, except for his own selfish aspirations.

Posted by: decentAmerican | Aug 17, 2008 6:10:51 PM

McCain served honorably, but is no "hero." He was a lackluster officer given to showboating who chose congress over a military career.

As a Vietnam Veteran, I am proud to support Senator Barack Obama and I believe the repugnant talking points about judgment and experience will get no further for McShame than they did for Clinton.

Four more years of the Bush/Cheney lies and deceit, in the form of McSame?

No Thanks!

Obama 08

Posted by: jackt51 | Aug 17, 2008 7:02:21 PM

McCain & Pawlenty. Leaders of the GWR, Global Warming Republicans. Pawlenty is Mr. Light Rail and helped foist the bill for a $500,000 baseball stadium on the backs of one county's sales taxes. Also raised tobacco taxes ("health impact fees") and signed a state-wide smoking ban in bars.

Posted by: Colonel Reb | Aug 17, 2008 7:27:58 PM

So basically Pawlenty is saying that he is willing to back McCains flawed foreign policy that does little more than push forward in the same direction that Bush's flawed foreign policy is already directing us. He's also willing to overlook the full facts of the Georgia/Russia conflict and commit our already overstretched military in to a conflict with one of the worlds other largest powers over their one-sided view of the matter?

Yeah, they'll get my vote the day I have some sick desire to see the world set ablaze. He has experience huh? Experience in what? A corrupt system that has hardly managed to look out for the citizens of this country for years and years? Seems to me that such experience is the last thing this country needs, especially at a time like this.

A McCain victory will see this country slump further for yet another 4 years; provided we even survive his reign, and Pawlenty's words only serve as further proof. Obama 08 for me, we'd do far better with someone with common sense and objective viewpoint talking with Putin than another flunky blindly following Bush's policy who has already seemingly made up his mind on the matter.

Posted by: asht | Aug 17, 2008 10:32:19 PM

I careless about Obama's VP......
I voted for Hillary on primaries but
i will NOT vote for Obama in november
regardless who's the VP......

Posted by: Nicholas | Aug 17, 2008 10:39:38 PM

How dare Pawlenty...or whatever his name is attack Senator Obama on the (non)debate last night. Who is he or McCain to decide what another man's faith is between himself and his God? As a Christian I find this reprehensible. While politics allows a lot of incivility this is flat out repugnant. There is a higher order than Bush-Cheney and the GOP. And they will have to answer to it. Glad I'm not them!

Posted by: SWMissouri | Aug 17, 2008 10:57:08 PM

It doesn't matter, McCain, after he just got finished lying and cheating within the house of GOD!! How dare he. He was asked flat out how his room of silence was, in which he replied "I was trying to hear through the walls"... Ha Ha funny man, to bad you weren't even in the building sitting comfortably in your motorcade listening to the whole darn thing!!!!! How dare he indeed.

Posted by: eric | Aug 18, 2008 12:38:48 AM

I hope Obama nominates Bayh. As I recall, Bayh was one of the Dems who stood up and advocated going to war with Iraq.

Posted by: Jaycee | Aug 18, 2008 9:02:29 AM

These messageboards do tend to bring out the ugliness in people don't they? So, some of you people hate Barack Obama for reasons that are masquerading as his lack of patriotism and his juniority in the Senate, although he's actually held PUBLIC OFFICES for longer than Hillary. You do know what I mean by PUBLIC OFFICE don't you? It's the position you hold that you were voted into, not a position you married into. He's a HARVARD educated lawyer, and graduated from Columbia University. The guy is obviously intellectually more brilliant than most of the people on here. He has no major scandal in his past that required a Congressional hearing....*cough, cough* Whitewater. He also didn't pretend to champion women's rights while supporting someone who has had a barrage of sexual harassment complaints brought against them (insert Bill Clinton's name right here). So much for supporting women's causes huh Hillary supporters? Yet you still hate this man? I tell you what, go ahead and vote for McCain just like you voted for Dumbya 8 years ago. I'll just sit back and laugh like I did then. I've got money, the economy isn't hurting me. But I'll tell you what, I've tried every way imaginable to help the poor and it's obvious to me that the poor don't want help. Continue whining about the high gas prices, the never ending war in Iraq, the high price of low value education, and the jobs being sent over seas. After you're finished whining, take a long look in the mirror and congratulate the person who is a direct cause of their own problems because they were so offended that a black AMERICAN man with a foreign sounding name dared to run for President. And you wonder why Michelle just became proud to be an American. Covert racism is the worst of all.

Posted by: Siri | Aug 19, 2008 10:57:00 PM

Hey Jaycee,

Obama scares the hell out of me because he is so secretive about his past. Can you say "black liberation theology" and "marxism"? You can't tell me he is not a part of either of those movements! This country is not a communist country and they'll be another civil war before that happens.

Obama voted "present" more times than any other senator because he didn't want to be associated with any policy — except abortion.

Take away the TV monitor and speech writer and he is an empty suit. He is a puppet! He can't even win a pseudo-debate at Rick Warren's church.

And the press is shoving him down our throats, hyping him up so much like he is superman. The One! It is disgusting!

The economy isn't hurting you because there are some sectors of the economy that are not being affected but that isn't what we are being told — another lie — to get a liberal in office! Lies, lies, and more lies. And what is it that the liberal accuse conservatives of - disgusting again - but I don't buy it!

You liberals would not know the truth if it came and bit you in the a$$ like it has done almost every election for the last 20 years. When are you going to learn the truth is the better way? But then you would have to admit who you really are and that would be political suicide now wouldn't it?

Posted by: Greg | Aug 22, 2008 6:51:08 PM

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