Springer

Senator from Television

21 July 2003

Jerry Springer Runs for Senate

Senator Jerry Springer -- the juxtaposition of the words jars on the mind. Yet, TV talk show host Jerry Springer has decided to run for the Senate representing the state of Ohio as a Democrat. While many will laugh, Mr. Springer has hidden his rather bright light under the dark bushel of daytime TV. By no means can one endorse him so early in the campaign, but he is a serious man with a solid political background. He is probably better qualified than some currently in the upper house.

Unfortunately, Mr. Springer is a lawyer by training -- not what the Senate needs. However, his first job out of law school was as a campaign aid to Senator Robert Kennedy, and he had a hand in lowering the voting age to 18 from 21. He also served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. In other words, he has more political experience than Mr. Reagan had when he ran for governor of California and more elective office service than Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, the junior senator from New York, when she ran. He followed a period of legal practice with TV journalism, winning "Best Anchor" five years running in the Cincinnati area and covering the Ethiopian/Sudan famine live and in person. The awful TV show came next.

One suspects he is a liberal Democrat (to British readers, a Heath-Tory), based on his mayoralty record and his journalist efforts (no journalist can ever hide all political predispositions). As a result, he will be a target for the GOP's media machinery and an easy target if his TV show is used against him.

What Mr. Springer does offer to the people of Ohio is his fame as well as his political skills. He will have the instant and undivided attention of the media from the beginning. If he has the nerve to be a leader, the whole country will know it overnight. It is a long way from the studio to the Senate, and even farther to the Oval Office. But Jerry-haters can relax -- born in London in 1944 of parents fleeing the Holocaust and therefore a naturalized citizen, Mr. Springer is constitutionally barred from being president.