Manhattan Adult Entertainment: San Francisco Eliot Spitzer
As Spitzer spoke, audience members penned questions on small note cards collected by moderator Mary Cranston, a lawyer and former chair of the Commonwealth Club board. There were some finance-related questions, but as it turned out, even this genteel audience couldn’t resist inquiring about the scandal. “I have a number of questions around your resignation as governor of New York,” Cranston said. “Obviously it was a difficult circumstance…What advice do you have for young people considering political careers? Although he said he wasn’t the one to give advice, Spitzer warned of risks and temptations inherent in an otherwise noble profession. “Be smarter than I was,” he said.
Cranston didn’t drop the issue. “America loves a rebirth story,” she said. “Will you go back into elected politics?” “Absolutely not on the horizon,” Spitzer said. That was disappointing to Barbara Collins, an East Bay woman interviewed after the event. “He should be back in politics, definitely,” she said. “He’s one of the few who actually went after anybody in power.” As for the prostitution thing, Collins said, “it’s really not anybody’s business but his.”