Then it’s back to bipartisanship. Bush may have sold voters a bill of goods when he promised to be a uniter rather than a divider, Bayh says — but the fact is, that’s what the American people wanted then and still want today. And once Democrats understand that, they’ll start winning elections. “For those of you who think that the country is just irretrievably divided into Red and Blue, into Republicans and Democrats, into far left and far right, it doesn’t have to be that way,” Bayh said in Portsmouth. “We can be Americans together again, working to move this country forward again.”

Now for the Big Finish, which commences when Bayh asks an aide for some maps of Indiana, each broken down into 92 counties. One map shows returns from the 2004 presidential election: the darker the red, the stronger the tally for Bush. It’s really, really red. Another — which is really blue — shows Bayh’s tallies on the same day in his senatorial contest. Once the applause dies down, Bayh ratchets up the folksiness (“isn’t” becomes “idn’t”) and starts to drive home his message. “The moral of this map is, winning California by more idn’t gonna get the job done for us,” he told the New Hampshire Young Dems. “Winning New York by more, or other states that we win by a lot by more, idn’t gonna get us where we need to go.”

“Where we need to get to,” Bayh continues, “is convincing a few folks who’ve become accustomed to voting like this [cue red map] instead to give us a shot and vote like this [cue blue map]. And it’s not by selling out and becoming Republicans. It’s by reaching out, and convincing them that we have what it takes to meet the challenges that they see in their lives: better health care, better schools, better jobs, a more intelligent national-security policy for this country. That’s what the American people are hungry for.”

John Edwards-ish
It’s an appealing message — Clintonian, even — and Bayh is an appealing messenger. (Like Clinton, Bayh is a former chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, and Clinton once said he hoped he’d be voting for Bayh for president someday. He may have changed his mind.) During the Young Democrats brunch, Bayh delivered his speech with the drowsy, affable self-assurance of a frat president — and he looked the part, too: well-coiffed hair parted slightly to the right, blue blazer, open-necked white shirt, speckled brown-and-yellow pants.

Afterward, Kate Vaughn, the Young Democrats’ secretary, praised both the substance and style of Bayh’s speech. “Somebody just said to me, he’s kind of John Edwards-ish,” Vaughn said. “He’s got that same kind of young, fresh-faced, easy-to-listen-to, easy-to-talk-to personality.... I think it’s a good thing. It’s a part of politics — you’re selling the person as much as their policies and their ideas.”

Other New Hampshirites were less kind, however. During Bayh’s next appearance — a luncheon for the Portsmouth Democrats — one woman hammered him for refusing to sign the presidential-censure resolution put forward by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), in connection with President Bush’s unauthorized wiretapping of American citizens. Bayh responded by telling the woman, as politely as possible, that the Democrats need to put pragmatism ahead of ideological purity right now. “This president has terribly governed this country, and we need to do something about that,” Bayh said. “What Russ is complaining about is the way this policy’s been carried out. We need to change the policy, okay? We need to change the policy. Now how are we going to change the policy? We’re gonna change the policy by whuppin’ ’em in November, by gettin’ a majority in the House and Senate, and ultimately electing a president who’ll have a better policy.”

The woman wasn’t satisfied. “Do you believe that he broke the law?” she asked. Bayh responded that, due to the Bush administration’s unwillingness to share key information on the wiretapping program, he honestly couldn’t say. “I suspect that the FISA law has not been followed,” Bayh added. “I think that that is probably the case. But in order to tell you that for a certainty, I’d have to have the facts, and they won’t give them to us.” The awkward silence that followed was broken by Peter Somssich — who, as chair of the Portsmouth Democrats, had introduced Bayh a few minutes earlier. “You’re not going to rally the troops by saying that,” Somssich complained. “That’s not going to help us at all. We have to get the base energized to get behind you and other candidates. And to just say, ‘Well, just wait till November to change things’ ... no.”

This exchange epitomizes the challenge Bayh faces. Democrats want to retake control of Congress and win the presidency again. They also hate George W. Bush and the majority of the current Republican leadership, and they would like to see the GOP squirm as much as possible over the next two years. The problem, obviously, is that these two ends may not be complementary — and a candidate like Bayh, who’s urging Democrats to heed their electoral superego instead of their anti-Republican id, faces a tough sell.

Ultimately, there’s an ironic twist to Bayh’s situation: to beat Hillary Clinton, he’ll need to do something very similar to what a certain Arkansas governor did en route to beating Bush I fourteen years ago. “He basically needs what happened to Clinton in ’92 to happen to him,” says Stuart Rothenberg, the political analyst and author of the Rothenberg Political Report. “The Democratic groups and Democratic leaders looked around and said, Maybe we’d rather have [Iowa senator and populist firebrand] Tom Harkin as president, but who can get elected? Bayh probably needs that same kind of dynamic.” The catch, obviously, is that Tom Harkin was no Hillary Clinton.

On the Web:
Adam Reilly's Talking Politics blog: //www.thephoenix.com/talkingpolitics/
Evan Bayh: //bayh.senate.gov/about.html
Third Way: A Strategy Center for Progressives: //third-way.com/
All America: //www.allamericapac.com/
Americans for Bayh: //www.americansforbayh.com/
Forward Together: //www.forwardtogetherpac.com/