Michael Smerconish

Michael Andrew Smerconish (born March 15, 1962) is an American radio host and television presenter, political commentator, author, and lawyer.

A self-described "lifelong Republican" and former GOP administration appointee, he left the Republican party during the Obama administration.

He hosts a morning radio show, The Michael Smerconish Program, on the POTUS Channel on SiriusXM, and a CNN and CNN International program on Saturdays.

He is a former Sunday columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and has written seven books, including six non-fiction works and one novel.

He serves of counsel to Kline & Specter, a Philadelphia law firm.

Smerconish was born March 15, 1962, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence (née Grovich) and Walter Smerconish.

His family hails from Galicia in Eastern Europe.

He graduated from Central Bucks High School West, a public high school in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

He received his B.A. from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia.

Smerconish was raised in a Republican household, and while in his early teens, Smerconish began to correspond with the then Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia, Frank L. Rizzo.

The two eventually met, and established a relationship.

In spring of 1980, Smerconish's father competed unsuccessfully in a Republican primary for the Pennsylvania state legislature.

Smerconish worked on his father's unsuccessful campaign during his senior year in high school.

In 1980, Smerconish founded Youth for Reagan/Bush at Lehigh University.

As a student at University of Pennsylvania Law School, he ran unsuccessfully for the Pennsylvania state legislature, losing the Republican Primary by 419 votes.

After losing his primary, Smerconish returned to law school and worked on political campaigns.

In 1986, Smerconish was responsible for managing Philadelphia for U.S. Senator Arlen Specter's re-election.

In 1987, Smerconish served as Frank Rizzo's political director in Rizzo's losing bid to return as mayor of Philadelphia.

After graduating from Penn Law School, Smerconish opened a title insurance agency with his brother Wally prior to being appointed, at age 29, by the George H. W. Bush administration to serve as regional administrator of Philadelphia Region III for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Jack Kemp.

In the spring of 1990, Smerconish made his first radio appearance as a guest of a guest-host, Brian Tierney, who was then a substitute host on Philadelphia talk station 96.5 FM WWDB.

During the 1991 Philadelphia mayoral election, Smerconish worked at WWDB as a political analyst.

He then transitioned from a guest to a guest-host.

Smerconish's tenure at HUD came to a close after George H. W. Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton in the 1992 election.

In 1993, Smerconish began what would become a decade practicing law with legendary trial attorney James E. Beasley, who would become the benefactor and eponym of the Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Smerconish became acquainted with Beasley while at HUD when he sought the latter's legal opinion for a possible defamation action against Steve Lopez, then a columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Beasley was noted for his record-breaking defamation wins against the newspaper.

(No lawsuit was filed by Smerconish against Lopez.) Working closely with Beasley for a decade, Smerconish specialized in complex tort litigation.

On October 19, 2008, after supporting only Republican presidential candidates, Smerconish endorsed Barack Obama for president in the 2008 presidential election.

In a 2,000-word essay for Salon titled "Why this lifelong Republican may vote for Obama," citing the Republican Party's failure to capture Osama bin Laden after seven years of war, he wrote, "All of this drives me bat-shit, and it just might drive me into the Obama camp. That'd be quite a departure."

In his commentary, Smerconish urged the Republican Party to pursue "moderation on social issues in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP."

In June 2010, he authored an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he wrote, "Buying gas or groceries or attending back-to-school nights, I speak to people for whom the issues are a mixed bag; they are liberal on some, conservative on others, middle of the road on the rest. But politicians don't take their cues from those people. No, politicians emulate the world of punditry."

In February 2010, Smerconish announced that he had left the Republican Party.

Discussing Smerconish's move to the middle, Manuel Roig-Franzia of The Washington Post wrote, "It may be conventional wisdom that the only way to truly succeed in the world of talk is to occupy one of the poles. But Smerconish is betting his career that there's a great untapped center."

At a 2015 legal seminar sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Smerconish wrote an essay summarizing some of his lessons learned working for Beasley.

Smerconish's legal work spanned various subject areas, including contracts, medical malpractice, and products liability.

His clients included: the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (in an action against Dead Kennedys for publishing an FOP photograph on an album cover that advocated the murder of police); the City of Rome, Italy (in a contract dispute against the Barnes Foundation); and Orlin Norris, a professional boxer who through Smerconish sued promoter Don King for a shot at the heavyweight title.

In a medical malpractice action, Smerconish successfully sued abortion provider Kermit Gosnell.

While in active practice, Smerconish served one term as a member of the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Trial Lawyer's Association.

Today, Smerconish's law license hangs in the office of the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Specter.

Smerconish voted for Gary Johnson in the 2016 presidential election.