I sat down with Michael Steele for a live show at Politicon, an event at the LA Convention Center designed to bring the worlds of politics and entertainment together. When we signed up to do the show there I had no idea if anyone was going to be at the event altogether much less show up to our taping. I was beyond thrilled to see that not only was Politicon a success but our show was standing room only and there were even people watching from the hallway. It was definitely a moment I realized that people were really into what we were doing.
As former Chairman of the GOP, Michael knows politics in an intimate way that only a select few do. I had emailed him before the show to say I could get him some topics if he wanted to brush up on anything but he said it wasn't necessary. I normally don't do that with guests but I know people in the political world often aren't as open as comedians or authors (or regular humans for that matter.) From beat one our conversation was an honest and open look at our political system; it's strengths, its weaknesses and how we can make it better.
I tried to really focus on money in politics and get Michel to talk about how it has corroded our system in real ways. He was candid and open about it and even talked about how much time he spent per day just making phone calls to donors. More than anything else though, I could see that he wanted to help rebrand and untarnish the Republican image. He wanted to talk about solutions and not just problems. It was exactly the type of conversation I would want to have with someone on the inside. Hopefully Michael will take that dive and get back into politics at some point. He'd certainly have my support.
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