Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is starting to focus his message for a presidential bid in 2008. He wants us to believe that he now cares about the middle class.

Yesterday in a National Press Club speech and again later in the day in Iowa, Bayh said he is aiming his possible candidacy at America's middle class. He said the Democratic Party has forgotten how to address the middle class, and the Republicans have ignored it.

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While the Democratic Party has been, and must remain, a champion of the poor, Bayh said, it must not make issues like increasing the minimum wage "the entirety of our economic agenda."

He said aiding the nation's middle class would be "a centerpiece of my campaign," if he makes one. He left no doubt of his target audience, mentioning the words "middle class" 45 times in his formal remarks.

"We must confront the challenges middle-class Americans face — health-care costs, college affordability, retirement security and more — so that all can build lives of greater prosperity and promise," Bayh said. "And we must reward hard work, thrift and ingenuity so that all who aspire to it can join our middle class."

Bayh's rhetoric sounds hauntingly similar to Bill Clinton. In fact, I used to believe that Bayh was a moderate Democrat that could win the presidency if he could get the nomination. But then there is his pesky Senate voting record. I have already noted that in the last year, he has moved solidly to the left in his voting.

This sudden shift to the left is also found when looking at the 109th Senate's voting patterns. Where he used to be a moderate, his current voting pattern puts him in the same category with well known liberals Kerry, Shumer, and Feinestein. So even though he talks the moderate game, his voting record belies a liberal at heart. Which may help him in the primary but may well prove fatal in the general.