Sen. Bayh just a coin toss away?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Senator Evan Bayh was a finalist to become President Barack Obama's running mate last year, but news of how close the Indiana Senator came to becoming Vice President is just now coming to light.

The news is in a new book from the president's campaign manager.

The Audacity to Win is a new book by David Plouffe and excerpts of it are just out on Time magazine's Web site.

The Plouffe account makes it clear that Senator Evan Bayh was a close second to Joe Biden.

Plouffe quotes Obama saying, "It's a coin toss now between Bayh and (eventual choice Joe) Biden."

The statement came after Plouffe and chief strategist David Axelrod had interviewed Bayh, Biden and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and made it clear they favored Biden.

"I think at the very end stage he was a coin toss from being Vice President," said Bayh advisor Ann DeLaney. "It's very, very flattering from his point of view. I think a lot of commentators didn't think it was that close at the end and it clearly was."

"I thought all along that he was a very serious contender for the position and I heard all summer that he was a very serious contender," said Kip Tew.

Tew advised the Obama campaign in Indiana.

Obama played it close to the vest in public. But in his book Plouffe spells out the analysis saying Bayh's answers to questions were close to perfect but cautious, suggesting that Bayh had fewer positives, but also fewer negatives than the other finalists.

"There's no way this guy will color outside the lines," said Plouffe.

"None of that's news to those of us who know him," said DeLaney.

What Bayh didn't have was Biden's foreign policy experience and just maybe the luck to win a coin toss.

According to the book, Obama gave no explanation for his final decision.

Plouffe said he and Axelrod got a call and the eventual president elect said simply, "I've decided. It's Biden."