YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Smerconish

lines on the record: 69
first: 2019-02-21
most recent: 2019-02-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You're leading a program at the institute ton Listen, I'll just say I always enjoy being in your company all those nights in the last cycle, you know, sitting one seat removed from you was a great honor for me. And some of those nights got a little long-winded. My ears would perk up when you had something to say because I always wanted to know what was coming.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is going to go for a fortune. And I, of course, had to explain to her it was then and remains the most valuable asset, you know, in the Smircanish household.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My wife and cigars is she doesn't want me smoking in the house. And I said, why are you so pleased by this? And she said, well, you know, the kids school auction is next month”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I interviewed him about his book when the book came out. And in a throwaway line, I said, if you go back to Cuba, please take me with you. It's a bucket list item for me. Never expecting that weeks later he would call and say, I'm going back and you may join me if you're credentialed. I think I'll see Castro, but you just never know. Well, he got to see him. We spent seven hours in Castro's company. I had the opportunity to question Fidel Castro. I'll tell you a quick story, if I may, that I like smoking cigars and I like smoking Cuban cigars. And early on in the evening, I told Fidel Castro that there was a new Cuban cigar that I really enjoyed. It's called the Trinidad. And Castro, at the end of the night, presents me with a box, which I impulsively had him sign of Trinidad cigars. When I get home, my wife is elated, and I can't understand because all I know is...”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, for the War Commission for Kennedy, drafted from Philly to go down and play a role in the Warren Commission. Our inspector was the architect of the single bullet theory, or he would force me to say later in life, the single bullet conclusion, because he thought he'd prove it. In his memoir, he talks about going to Cuba, sitting down with Fidel Castro, and trying to get the Cuban side of the Kennedy assassination.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Seven hours I was in his company, our inspector was actually, I'll just go back one small step. Spectre himself wrote a memoir very similar to Believer, which was him reflecting on all these very unique experiences that he had. His was called passion for truth. You'll remember that Arl In Spectre was a young prosecutor for the Warren Commission.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, can I say, look, for me, as the song says, it's been a long, strange trip. It's not over yet. The most recent book was cathartic in a sense because it's not only a collection of a hundred of what I regard as my most memorable columns drawn from 1,047 that I wrote in this time period. But I added an afterword for every one of them. I wasn't just going to mail in the columns. And many of them are Maya culpas. You know, many of them are me saying, wow, I wouldn't have written this column today. And people, oh, you know, you've changed so much. And my response is to say, I've not changed, I don't think, any more so than anybody else who leads a full life. The difference is for me, all of my opinions are etched in columns or they've been captured in video. So you can go back, especially now in the world in which we live. And you can find me on any issue. But I embrace the change.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I'm doing my best work now. It's my most authentic work. I don't feel the need in radio or television or anything I write to Kowtow to any audience. At the end of every radio broadcast and every television show, there are people who will say, oh, you're carrying water for Donald Trump or you're a liberal and you're in the tank for the haters and we always knew it. As long as I'm pissing off everybody, equally, then I feel like I'm in exactly the place that I want to be in.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I have some of that regret. We're not socially active. We don't travel extensively. We have a second home, but things we do we do as a family. And so, yeah, there have been some moments, but not as many as you might think, because beyond work, it has been all home life.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very tough. I have a forgiving wife in that regard who was always very supportive of me wanting to sort of chase the dream. I have a lot of faults. One asset I have is a really good work ethic and nobody's going to beat me by getting up early early.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At both places. At both places, because I would want to book guests on O'Reilly's radio program, and they would tell me that's unacceptable, and I would go over to Hardball and I would want to similarly book guests or deliver a particular type of commentary. And each had this deaf manner of letting me know without saying it expressly that that was not a guest who would be welcome there. But they would vacation at the same time of the year every year. Vacation in August, vacation in December. And so I was working my ass off, hosting my own program, and both of theirs in overlap times. I look back on those days. I don't know how I did that.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And remains. Smirk, we love your work for Chris, but we are, let me get it straight, we are young, we are liberal, and we are nerdy, and you are none of the above. You're not getting a gig here. You can continue to host for Chris.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They both knew about it, didn't want to hear about it. I would leave, O'Reilly's would come earlier in the day. So I would leave that Fox building at, I don't know, 45th Avenue of the Americas, and I would have to walk two or three blocks north to go into 30 Rock. And I would tell my friends, I'm not sure if I run a risk of getting shot in the back or shot in the chest. But I was sort of the Switzerland who was able to navigate both of those worlds and desperately wanted, by the way, a gig. I mean, I wanted Westwood One to give me a radio program of my own. I thought I was investing Sweat Equity. And when O'Reilly gave up that radio show, they wouldn't give it to me. They said, you do a great program, but nobody knows who you are. You're an unknown. And we've got this guy named Fred Thompson, and he was in the hunt for Red October. We're giving him the gig. And I said, okay, that's great, but he's not a radio guy.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David, for a five year time period, I was both Chris Matthews principal fill-in for hardball and Bill O'Reilly's principal fill in for the radio factor which was his syndicated radio show.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Talk the novel that we've discussed means a great deal to me, and so too does my most recent book for which you graciously wrote the foreword Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right means a great deal to me. Those are my favorites.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think certain of those books were written in the heat of the moment. The first of them, I never set out to write a book. The first book that I wrote was called Flying Blind. And it's about political correctness in a post 9 11 world pertaining to airline security. I became very, very concerned about the way in which we were not protecting airplanes post-9-11, delved into a particular subject before I knew it, I was testifying in front of a Senate subcommittee on things that I had learned on that issue. And somebody came to me and said, put this all together and write a book. And I did, and I so enjoyed the experience that then I just kept going. I don't know that I'll write another, but I love the process. I just am so pressed on time these days to be able to do it.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Be what I didn't know until I put together my most recent book is that when I was in law school in 1985, I submitted an essay, a 700-word essay to the Daily News, and they printed it. And I didn't know till I went to the archives of the paper and tried to recreate all the columns I had written over the years. Like, oh my God, here's this column that I wrote back when I was, you know, in my 20s and in law school.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I majored in government and journalism at Lehigh, and the journalism department, I really appreciate it. I didn't go there looking to pick up the major, but I took a course.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think policy matters to him. And this talk show host that I created certainly didn't care about policy. He cared about ratings in the same way the president cares about tomorrow's episode.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, but Stan Powers was definitely based on many things that I had seen through the years. Stan Powers was a guy who's a stoner and slacker who doesn't know squat about politics. And by reading Republican talking points, he's nevertheless able to become a kingmaker. And because he's on the air in the I-4 corridor in Florida at a time when the Republican convention is coming to town, he's literally got an outsized influence in who will be the next president of the United States. When I wrote that book, Warner Brothers acquired the television rights and I participated in pitch meetings where people would say to me, we love the story, but we think it's a bit too fantastical. And I look at what's going on today, right? The example of the wall debate being directed by Talking Heads. The book was ahead of its time.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A great entertainer, but I think that Russia's had an impact on the party. There's a good question, I think, as to how much of it by all of these hosts are really deeply held beliefs or whether they're just reading from talking points. I wrote a novel on exactly this subject. How much of it is just for their own self-aggrandizement and professional advancement?”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About 15 years ago he came to Philadelphia to do a live event he rarely does them. This was at the Academy of Music. You've probably been inside. You were probably inside for John Street swearing in because that's where they would have it. It looks like the inside of a wedding cake. Picture this ornate, gorgeous setting, 2,000 people. The orchestra plays there. And I watched Limbaugh for 90 minutes captivate an audience without notes. I wrote, I was then writing for the Daily News, and I wrote a column about his abilities as an entertainer. Rush quoted from the piece in the weeks thereafter. So he gives good ear like Donald Trump. He's got a very attenuated ear and can see what plays well with the audience. And he's very quick. You know, the president just last Friday in the Rose Garden was singing the praises of Limbaugh the entertainer who can go three hours without taking a call. That's true. I mean, Rush is...”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No doubt about it. There was a UG 8,000 person survey in October of last year, largest arguably study of polarization at all. I buy into the finding which says that the national discourse, this is really our downfall, our national discourse is being led by very small fringe groups at the outer banks of the ideological divide. I do not believe that the country is as divided as the mouthpieces and as the members of the House and Senate. Mars Fiorina at Stanford's Hoover Institution wrote a great book where he documented that there's not been a sea change of American opinions since the 70s. It's not like today we've all become more pro-life or pro-choice and fill in the blank. We're pretty much where we were. But those who are leading the conversation, they're fringe.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“91 in particular when Rush Limbaugh was syndicated. And I get why he was successful at that time. The media was, I would argue, a left-of-center place. And talk radio stations around the country, including the one where I was cutting my teeth, now wanted to have rush and a stable full of his imitators. And overnight, the industry changed. The question is, why now that we have all this choice in the marketplace? Why now that we have internet and satellite radio and websites and bloggers? Why is the Republican Party still allowing its shots to be called by these entertainers who are conflating news and entertainment? That's the issue.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if you go back, when I cut my teeth in the Republican Party in the 80s, 60% of the Senate at a time when Arl Inspector was a Republican in the Senate, 60% of the Senate were comprised of moderates. There were so many moderates in the Senate that the Republicans had their own gathering they called it the Wednesday lunch club. And, you know, move from the 80s to where we are today. There's been a complete exodus of moderates. There are literally none. I don't know. Susan Collins, I guess, maybe Lisa Murkowski, but there are none left. And you think about the Republicans of stature in the 80s, Bob Dole and Alan Simpson and Bob Packwood and Arlen Spector and John Hines. I mean, Jake Javitz for crying out loud was a Republican senator. That's over. And here's my point. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in causation. It all turned at the end of the 80s.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if you were to ask me, and I speak on this around the country, how did we get where we are relative to polarization? There are half a dozen factors that I would cite, but the number one factor I would cite is the media influence. I mean, you and I are having this conversation against the backdrop of the president declaring a so-called emergency relative to illegal immigration in the border. And why is he doing that? He's doing that because his feet have been held to the fire by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Anne Coulter. What a great example of just how the leadership on the right is no longer held by party elders. It's not Mitch McConnell. It's largely men with microphones who control that primary audience and consequently the president knows that. You know, he runs the risk of seeing even an Erasmuson poll his Republican number take a dip.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it was soon thereafter that I knew Sirius XM is probably the more hospitable home for me. I mean, here I'm thinking I've got the ultimate interview. What more could I want than the president one-on-one and my employer was embarrassed about it?”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All conservative talent and me, they were embarrassed. And I saw a memo that I was never supposed to see about how this interview should be downplayed with the affiliates, or we ran the risk that they would cut loose my program.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think so. But we had several conversations, interviews, before the election and then after he was elected, I came in and I did what was Obama's first live radio interview from the White House. That was August of 2009 from the diplomatic reception room. And then in 2012, and this is what you're making reference to, this is an unbelievable story, but I was invited to come back and I was given 30 minutes one-on-one in the Oval Office. I want to say two weeks out from the election at a time when he and Romney were neck and neck and the big storm had yet to hit New Jersey, Superstorm Sandy, if you can put yourself back in that mindset. And now I've been syndicated. I'm on 100 radio stations across the country, and I'm thrilled that I have a one-on-one with the president with no restrictions. My syndicator, which syndicated”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did and I didn't have to, but I had been so open about my disenchantment with the Republican Party largely for foreign policy reasons. That I felt I would be lying through omission if I didn't close the loop and say this is what I'm doing. And so on air one day, you know, with a long monologue of explanation prepared, I also wrote an essay for Salaam that I think was two or three thousand words laying out all of my rationale. But a large part of it, David, had to do with the fact that Senator Obama was willing to come on my radio program for who knows what reason. And we had a conversation about the hunt for bin Laden. And I asked him, well, what if he's in Pakistan? And he said to me that he would disregard their sovereign status. And you'll remember better than anybody that John McCain and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton all ridiculed him for this. Oh my god.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've skipped a few years, but that's fine. We'll go back. We'll pick them up. I was seeing the world differently by now, politically speaking. I had voted for nothing. I'd voted for plenty of Democrats, but only Republican presidential candidates from 1980 through 2008. Obama would become the first Democrat for whom I'd voted. And you actually announced that.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Immensely So did knocking on doors when I was in my mid twenties and trying to sell myself to 2,000 people in a suburban community. All of those political experiences, I think, have been of great benefit in turning on a microphone and hosting a conversation.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I still, you know, it's funny. I still maintain my license. I still sit through continuing legal education ethics seminars and so forth because one never knows. The idea of going back and trying a case or two appeals to me, but I've been full on in media work since.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was burning the candle at all ends and recently married and in the process of raising four children. I look back at those days and I have no idea four kids in the house, four dogs in the house, and two careers that I was juggling. And then came the point where CBS said to me, we are cutting loose Don Imus in the morning and we want you to be our morning drive guy. And that was the moment that I had to decide. I have a very secure law practice. I am working for a guy who others would dream of working for, and yet here's this opportunity. Am I ready to take the shot? And I did. And I never look back.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'd had these as you've described, I had these unique political experiences at an early age. And as a result, when it would be election night in Philadelphia and the local network affiliates were putting together their coverage, when I was still in my 20s, I would be called on by certain of the anchors to provide commentary. Larry Kane, chief among them who was sort of the dean, another legend in Philadelphia. Another legend, and someone that I once delivered chlorine to his house when I was working for a pool and patio furniture store and remembered meeting him on that occasion. And he claims that he remembered”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn't. I mean, the quality of the caseload that I had working with him and the cases that I brought in myself were pretty extraordinary. It was not a typical, you know, Jim would get the pick of the litter. I loved working with him, loved working with him, and we worked together on some very high-profile litigation.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I learned lessons from Beasley, much like I learned knocking on doors in my state representative campaign when you'd open a door and every door was a different experience and people were dealing with their own stressors and situations and family lives. And Jim was very tuned into I'm struggling with how to say it, but he was someone who was really in tune with trying to understand What makes people tick? What really motivates them and be a good listener? Try and understand, in this case, trying a case to a jury what they want so that you can give it to them.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a guy who drove a greyhound bus after his World War two service, drove past the Temple University Law School on North Broad Street, was inspired to finish his education and today that law school bears his name. And he was a hell of a guy. And you would have appreciated him because he was remarkably street smart.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was the original compassionate conservative, I think. Before W sort of coined that label. Ideologically, he and Spector were not twins, but there was a lot of similarity between the two of them. They were out-of-the-box thinkers and they were intellectually driven. David, you get the picture. You're making me realize I've been so fortunate. You just think about the carpool of individuals that you've identified already, that I've had the privilege of being close to and interacting with. It's been a really fortunate existence that I have had.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was an eye opener. It was a great experience for me being raised in suburbia to have the interactions that I had with people of very little means and a very diverse backgrounds that didn't look like my neighbors in suburbia. And Kemp at the time was attempting to change the face of public housing by introducing elements of private property ownership. In the end, it didn't go anywhere, but I was proud to be associated with him trying a different approach.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I had Jack Kemp was my boss. I had responsibility at age 29 for all federal housing in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think you asked previously whether I today hold those same views of many years ago and I don't. But Arl Inspector was one of, in the same way that the one professor made me see the light intellectually, academically, I think Senator Spector had that same influence on me politically.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not all portrait of rectitude. That's true. Good friend. And one of his sons remains one of my closest friends. We've been friends for, my God, since 1980.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was as an organizer. Well, we actually, it's another great story, but I was with my campaign treasurer and we actually saw a guy who was in the act of defacing them and we gave Chase. And then we weren't sure what. Perhaps I wouldn't want to be evaluated in the same way.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Printed labels that said Pico that fit on my yard signs, and so all over suburban Bucks County, it would say Michael Smirconish for Pico representative. And I couldn't take those damn signs down fast enough, but it was a very heated campaign. And I worked it hard. And I have no regrets. You know, if you said to me, Michael, you can go back and rewrite that chapter of your life or you could win the race or I wouldn't want to change any of it. I learned more knocking on a few thousand doors than I learned at the Penn Law School or at Lehigh University.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Except for me, yeah, I'm the disastrous. I'll tell you, David, you'll get a kick out of this. The biggest mistake that I made was that I accepted a check from the Philadelphia Electric Company, Pico Pack. And it was probably $200, but that was so held against me that I had yard signs that said Michael Swirkanish for state representative and this environmental group that was vehemently anti-pump very cleverly.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A 26 year old law. Put that on the epitaph. So, yeah, I was for the Point Pleasant Water Diversion Project, aka the pump. And the other candidates in the race, I think, were uniformly against it. In the end, they built the pump and it did not have the disastrous consequences that people had feared that it would. Except for you.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was and it became a flashpoint for Abby Hoffman of all people and Abby Hoffman came in and campaigned against me. I was in my mid-”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“While you're in law school, I did. Well, see, my father had run for a state legislative district in the Philadelphia suburbs without any formal political background. He'd been active in the community, but he'd not been active politically. And he lost in a primary in 1980. So it's now 1986, and the timing wasn't great because I was a full-time student. Made an arrangement with Penn that I would maintain a full class schedule and that if I were elected and went to Harrisburg, they would award me a pen law degree which was very important to me, although I'd finish at a different law school. Long story short, I ran for the state legislature in an open primary in a five or a six-way race, came in second, lost by 419 votes, had it on my mind, you know, that I would avenge my dad's defeat, but that wasn't in the cards.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David Amadon Jr. And he threw a switch in me and made me read and turned me on. And I left Lehigh, a very different person, I think, than I entered.”
2019-02-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 310 - Michael Smerconish · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source