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Politically, he rebuilt his party from near death in Indiana, first winning a race for secretary of state in 1986, then helping the party win four consecutive races for governor. He won two of them, then his hand-picked lieutenant governor, Frank O'Bannon, won two more. He captured his own senate seat after the two terms as governor.

Other Democrats who served under him went on to win their own races, including Gov. O'Bannon and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, who won two terms after 32 years of Republican mayors. Bayh did all of that in a state that has not gone for a Democratic presidential nominee since the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964.

As governor, Bayh was the opposite of the current Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican who never seems to shy away from controversial issues. Bayh took a stab at education reform but never put a definitive stamp on a particular policy or issue. He avoided tax increases, a winning position in a conservative state. If he was zealous about anything, he was zealous about finding the common ground between liberal and conservative ideological perspectives. He also won elections and returned Indiana to a competitive two-party state.

Former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg of Vincennes thinks a Bayh vice presidential nomination would help Obama in Indiana. "He'd be the ideal candidate," said Gregg, who likes to call himself a "Bible-quoting, gun-toting Democrat."

"Historically, Bayh is from southern Indiana," Gregg said. "He'll play well in the Midwest and the near South—Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. He is the modern-day Moses for the Indiana Democratic Party."

Notre Dame professor Robert Schmuhl thinks Bayh has the right temperament for the vice presidential assignment.

"He would be a figure who understands how the vice president should campaign and serve," Schmul said. "I don't think he is the kind of person who would try to upstage the presidential candidate."

Russ Pulliam is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star and former editorial page editor for The Indianapolis News. He is also director of the Pulliam Fellowship.

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More on Bayh is available from his official Senate page.

More on the 2008 election is available in our full coverage area and on our politics blog.

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August (Web-Only) 2008, Vol. 52