Michael Smerconish

Michael Smerconish hosts the morning drive-time talk show daily on WPHT-AM (1210). A Philadelphia lawyer turned political commentator, Smerconish is a fill-in host for Bill O'Reilly on the Radio Factor, and a guest host for Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's Scarborough Country. He has often appeared on the Today Show, It's Your World with Neil Cavuto and Hardball with Chris Matthews. His Philadelphia Daily News column appears on the Opinion page.

Michael Smerconish: The good we lost with 'Evil Irv'

Posted 07/02/2009

SEVERAL hundred of us gathered to pay respects to the self-proclaimed "Evil one" on Sunday. Irv Homer wasn't buried alone. With him, he took the era when personality ruled the talk-radio airwaves. Homer was the last local vestige of that era. Like Dominic Quinn and Frank Ford before him, he ruled the dial when personality mattered.

Michael Smerconish: Ed McPhilly

Posted 06/25/2009

'GOOD with 10 million people, lousy with 10." That's how Ed McMahon once described to me his longtime friend, the notoriously private Johnny Carson.

Michael Smerconish: Senior prank-itis - 06/18/2009: IHAD feelings of nostalgia after reading about the Lehigh Valley high-school students whose senior prank involved camping out in a school courtyard, though school administrators didn't share my yearning for a rerun of "American Graffiti." I get their post-Columbine dilemma, but disagree with the punishment they imposed.
Michael Smerconish: Best Rx for crime? Age. - 06/11/2009: OK, so he turned out to be 59 years old, not yet ready for retirement, but the arrest of alleged Center City "senior-citizen" bandit Jerry Lee Stanton raises an interesting question: Where do all the criminals go when they get old?
Michael Smerconish: The problem with Kensington - 06/04/2009: ON SUNDAY, the news of the execution of Dr. George Tiller repulsed me. On Monday, reports of a U.S. soldier killed outside a military recruiting station sickened me.
Michael Smerconish: More like a pol than a judge - 05/28/2009: JUDGE Sonia Sotomayor's 2001 speech at the University of California-Berkeley Law School is a cross-examiner's dream. Too bad in these politically correct times no senator is likely to use it as a roadmap to learn if the judge is better suited for Congress than for the Supreme Court.
Michael Smerconish: Can Bob's Notes save Pelosi? - 05/21/2009: MANY ARE finding it easy to throw Nancy Pelosi under the bus. She says that in September 2002, the CIA briefed her on en-
Michael Smerconish: When teams play the White House - 05/14/2009: WHEN the Phillies visit the White House tomorrow, they'll meet with a president already fond of hosting these familiar sports grip-and-grins.
Michael Smerconish: Jack Kemp's winning game plan - 05/07/2009: I HAD MY last conversation with Jack Kemp in October. No surprise, our focus was to be on tax policy. But the part of our dialogue that will always stay with me had to do with football and his family.
Michael Smerconish: The Specterquake: Book excerpt: His plea for civility - 04/30/2009: This is an edited excerpt from Michael Smerconish's new book, "Morning Drive: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking," published on Monday by Globe Pequot Press. It's a political manifesto and an inside look at today's split-screen cable TV and talk-radio world.
Michael Smerconish: The Mumia test for D.A. hopefuls - 04/23/2009: LAST WEEK, after a debate between the candidates for Philadelphia district attorney at the National Constitution Center, I submitted the following question in writing and requested that each candidate answer in 150 words or less:
Michael Smerconish: The Other Sounds of Philadelphia - 04/16/2009: 'WE LOST our voice." What fitting words for Phillies President David Montgomery to use to express the significance of the passing of Harry Kalas. Whether singing "High Hopes" or declaring a Mike Schmidt home run "outta here," Harry had a gift. He was our voice and we will miss him.