Non-Olympics Thread

Thomas Spragens has passed away. May he rest in peace.

Richardson recalled that Spragens was active in local Democratic Party politics and was the local party's delegate to the state party convention on behalf of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, an anti-Vietnam War candidate who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1968.

"He was active in Democratic politics locally and across the state," Richardson said. "He made a brilliant speech to the convention, even though it was obvious" that McCarthy that was not going to get the support of the state's delegation to the national convention, Richardson said.

Will Evan Bayh run for President? I think so but David Sirota will not be happy about that. I still can't believe someone like Sirota would slam Evan Bayh the way that he did. This isn't the 1990's anymore. Democrats have an image problem and we are seen as weak on defense and security despite the fact that we have 40 something veterans running for Congress. Just having veterans running will not change our image problem. It may help but it doesn't change it.

Some Indiana Democrats are excited about the prospect of a Bayh presidential bid.

Rudy Clay, chairman of the Lake County Democrats, said Bayh, who was elected to a second Senate term in 2004, would have strong appeal across political parties.
"His issues will reach across and pull red states into the blue-state columns. He's good at that. That's the kind of person you want to run for president," Clay told The Times of Munster.

In the past month, Bayh has been busy outlining his views on big issues from foreign policy to ethics reform. Last week, during a foreign policy speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., he advocated stronger economic and diplomatic sanctions against Iran and a reduction in American dependence on oil.

Bayh also appeared at the United Auto Workers conference last week in Washington, advocating stronger tariff rules on trade with China.

And on Thursday he stood with a bipartisan group of senators to announce a pork barrel-reduction act aimed at reducing Congressional spending on home-state projects.

Bayh's spokeswoman, Meghan Keck, said Bayh is "seriously considering" throwing his hat into the ring, but no definitive decision would be announced until this fall at the earliest, after the midterm elections.

"Right now, Sen. Bayh is doing the things that you have to do to make that decision down the road," Keck said.

Back to the Olympics on NBC for me...