When a rising star begins to fade ...

Senator Evan Bayh's roots as a popular Democrat hailing from a traditionally red state (Indiana) once earned him the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2000. After considering a presidential run of his own back in 2004, he was one of a handful of Democrats on Barack Obama's short list to be Vice President during the summer of 2008. Apparently, the sky was the limit for Bayh's political prospects.

What a difference a year makes.

According to Chris Cillizza, who blogs on "the Fix" at Washingtonpost.com (See http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/), Bayh is no longer the darling of his party. Whereas Bayh voted 84% of the time with the Democratic majority in 2007-2008, he now ranks as the most conservative Demnocratic Senator in the 111th Congress. He has crossed party lines on the abortion funding measure, and has been an outspoken critic of several of the Obama Administration's economic policies.

Moderates don't win presidential nominations, and so Bayh must be setting his sights elsewhere....