I always thought that Jerry Springer was just some asshole who had an awful (but hugely popular) television show. I had heard that he was once a mayor somewhere in the Midwest, but I never really gave it a second thought. That is, until today, where he showed up in a segment of This American Life.

I was looking online for a story someone had mentioned last night at dinner. Something about rented storage space... but Jerry Springer's name caught my eye and I had to check it out. (I never did find that piece on storage space) The show was called "Leaving the Fold" (FYI, that's a Real Audio link) and is about "people abandoning the life they've made for themselves, for an uncertain future somewhere else." The segment about Springer talks about his original career in politics and how he transitioned to the Jerry Springer show that we all know today. Much of it made me sad, really-- because it paints a picture of a good man, with good ideas and a good heart, who had the potential to do great things, and ended up--here. I kept thinking to myself, "what a waste." And yet the segment seemed to give me hope (for me? for him?). To finish on an up-note. The show to him is just his current gig: it pays the bills, "just a way to eat." But it sounds like it leaves him empty and he's now ready to try again to make a difference in the world.

It's heartening. Yet, perhaps not surprisingly, I feel a sense of betrayal in myself. "How could you support someone like that?" He represented the worst in television; he brought out the worst in people. Am I that desperate for someone to say what I want to hear?

Well, to be honest -- yes, I am. But I think it goes beyond that. I like him not because "he seems like a guy I'd like to hang out with at a bar and have a few drinks" (Not that I'd ever have wanted to do that with W), but because what he says resonates with me. It makes sense.

He didn't run in the U.S. Senatorial race in Ohio last year because he was/is still under contract to produce the show. (check out these excerpts from an interview with him on CNN. I particularly like the way he indirectly criticizes the interviewer -- and news media in general -- in response to a fairly holier-than-thou comment from the interviewer) But almost certainly he'll make a run the next time around.

July was listening from the other room and thought he should run for President. Yeah. Definitely. Too bad he can't, having immigrated to the U.S. when he was 5. But hey, the next senatorial race will be 2006. Go Jerry!