Carl Hulse in the NYT highlights the most glaring weakness of just about the weakest conceivable Vice Presidential contender, Evan Bayh: Bayh worked with John McCain to push hard for an invasion of Iraq and even served as co-chair on the neocon "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq" (joining McCain and Lieberman, the only other sitting Senators in the group).
However the Times also quotes Al From talking up his DLC pal's VP chances. It's a classic example of the thinking of the 'serious' types in DC who fetishize hawkishness.
"The antiwar people cannot define the Democratic Party," said Al From, a founder of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, of which Mr. Bayh was chairman for four years. "I think Evan’s real strength is you get someone on the ticket who has a record of being strong on national security, and that is a very important quality to have."
Because you don't want to reward people who were right. There has to be room at the top for people who were dead wrong about the most important national security debate of our time. Hell, anybody can see that 'wrong' and 'strong' rhyme.