John Cougar Mellencamp For Senate Because Oh Who Cares?

As is his wont, Evan Bayh pretty much deep-fisted Democrats (again) when he announced that he and his bank account full of campaign donations were staying at home this November. So, now the Democratic Party has essentially 13 minutes to come up with a new candidate before Indiana's deadline for candidacy announcements.

Alright, everybody! We've got to come up with a plan; the crazier the better. Everybody out of the box! We need to think!

[John] Mellencamp certainly has the home-state credibility. Few rockers have been so closely associated with a state as Mellencamp with Indiana…

In other words, he's worthy of the consideration that has led to talk of a "Draft John Mellencamp" movement. In fact, he might be just enough of an outlier to energize base votes and to make independent voters look again at the Democratic column.

Oh no! Back in the box, everybody! Back in the box! It's entirely too stupid out here!

Obama Leads Early Indiana Returns… And That's Without Mellencamp

MSNBC has some early poll returns from Indiana, and Barack Obama is slightly ahead.  Perhaps more heartening for the Illinois Senator is that John Mellencamp's hometown of Bloomington hasn't even released their results yet.

Presumably Mellencamp has thousands of relatives scattered in other parts of the state.  If there's any other explanation, McCain should probably deliver his concession speech now and make a beeline for the Early Bird Special.