Michael A. Smerconish is the host of the weekly Saturday TV program on CNN fittingly called "Smerconish." He is also the host of The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM Channel 124, newspaper columnist and author.
Prior to joining CNN, Smerconish was an MSNBC contributor and frequent guest-host of Hardball for Chris Matthews. He has been a guest on virtually every television program where politics is discussed, including: the NBC Today Show, Colbert Report, O'Reilly Factor, Larry King Live, The View, and Real Time With Bill Maher.
Smerconish has often been recognized for his radio work. Talkers Magazine has consistently named him one of America's most important talk show hosts. In 2009, prior to his syndication, Radio and Records named him the nation's Local Personality of the Year. In 2011, the National Association of Broadcasters selected him as a Marconi Award finalist in the category of Best Network/Syndicated Host. He has often been the recipient of several (Philadelphia) Achievement in Radio awards, including Best Talk Show Host and Best Evening Program. Philadelphia Magazine has named him the City's best talk show host, as well as one of the City's most powerful citizens.
On August 20, 2009, Smerconish became the first radio host to interview President Barack Obama, and interviewed him thereafter on many occasions, including a one-on-one, 30-minute Oval Office interview on October 26, 2012. He has also interviewed Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as Vice Presidents Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden.
Smerconish is the author of six books, two of them New York Times' best sellers. He donated all author proceeds from three of those manuscripts to charity. His published books are: TALK, a novel; Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11; Muzzled: From T-Ball to Terrorism, True Stories that Should Be Fiction; Murdered By Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain and Injustice; Morning Drive: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking; and Instinct: The Man Who Stopped the 20th Hijacker. In the spring of 2018, he released his seventh manuscript, "Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right," a compilation of 100 of his newspaper columns selected from more than 15 years of filing.
He writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer and his columns have been reprinted in various newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, Dallas Morning-News, Denver Post, and Boston Herald.
Smerconish became a radio and television commentator after experiences he had at an early age in Republican politics. While still in college he was an advance man for (then) Vice President George H.W. Bush. At age 29, he was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to a sub-cabinet level position.
Prior to turning to broadcasting as a full-time endeavor, Smerconish practiced law for ten years with James E. Beasley, a legendary Philadelphia-based trial lawyer, who is the namesake of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. Today Smerconish is of counsel to the Philadelphia law firm of Kline & Specter. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and remains a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Smerconish is a 1984 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University where he majored in government and journalism. In 1987, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
He lives in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife have raised four children.
