Bayh's war vote potential issue for Obama

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Sen. Evan Bayh's Iraq war vote may be an issue if presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama taps the Indiana senator as his running mate, political observers say.

While Bayh, 52, could help swing usually conservative-voting Indiana into the Democratic column in November, his initial support of the war could be an issue for Obama, the Illinois senator who has made his opposition a key plank in his campaign platform, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Bayh, D-Ind., also joined Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican presidential nominee, as an honorary co-chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, the newspaper said.

"He was not only wrong, he was aggressively wrong," Tom Andrews, national director of Win Without War, said of Bayh. "In my view, he would contradict, if not undermine, the Obama message of change, turning a new page on foreign policy and national security."

However, Eric Kleiman, a spokesman for the U.S. senator from Indiana, said Bayh's view toward opposition to the war, as toward many issues, evolved as new intelligence became available.

"Senator Bayh has shown the judgment that we need to admit that mistakes were made and we need to learn from them," Kleiman told the Times.