No. 1 on the hit list?

It might be getting even tougher for Evan Bayh than some of us thought it was getting:

Indiana's Evan Bayh is rapidly rising to the top of the GOP target list in this fall's midterms. Today, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will meet with House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence to convince him to run against Mr. Bayh.

[. . .]

According to the NRSC's internal polling, Mr. Pence marginally trails Mr. Bayh and could quite readily close the gap by next fall.

While Mr. Bayh still boasts nearly a 50% approval rating, between May and January, his ratings dropped by nearly 25 points. And Martha Coakley's precipitous fall in the polls in Massachusetts serves as a reminder to Democrats that no lead can be taken for granted.

It's a long time until November, though, and the more I think about, the more I wonder if health care will still be as strong an issue by then. If Democrats are stupid enough to keep harping on it, Bayh will suffer for it, even if he's not one of the voices doing the harping. But if they just let it go and move on, it will have largely faded from memory.

So much is going to depend on whether the economy is stagnant or improving by November. Watching the fumbling of Congress and the administration, it's hard to be optimistic about it, but anything can happen. And being No. 1 on the GOP's hit list could actually work for Bayh instead of against him, bringing out sympathetic voters who might have stayed home otherwise.