University President Amy Gutmann introduced him as "the scourge" of visiting coaches at the Palestra, but he's just the former mayor of Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell spoke in Houston Hall Friday afternoon to a packed room of undergraduates, graduate students and Philadelphia residents about issues ranging from leadership to basketball to SEPTA.
"If you know anything about Gov. Rendell, you know of his incredible fan-manship of Penn basketball," Gutmann said.
Rendell insists, however, that while he is Penn basketball's number-two fan -- after Gutmann, of course -- he is more the scourge of referees than visiting coaches.
Rendell discussed three components of leadership: clear vision, the ability to communicate and good decision-making skills.
Central to his talk were anecdotes about his time as mayor of Philadelphia in the mid-1990s. He told the audience about a conversation he had with an old woman in a pizza parlor while he was considering running for mayor.
"You're that Rendell guy," the woman told him.
After he confirmed his identity, the woman told him, "This city is so screwed up only a smart Jewish boy can clean it up."
As mayor, Rendell brought the city out of debt by cutting the budgets of many city programs -- decisions that, Rendell said, were tough but had to be made.
"Everyone who voted for me disagreed with at least one of the things I did," he said.
After the floor was opened to questions, the discussion turned from leadership to politics.
Rendell was challenged by an audience member on SEPTA, the now-troubled public transportation organization which he helped turn around in 1998 as mayor.
Rendell agreed that more oversight was needed and noted that he supported another desk audit of the agency.
Pointing to President George W. Bush's initiative in reforming Social Security, Rendell, a staunch Democrat, applauded his leadership initiatives, if not his agenda.
"President Bush deserves some credit for attacking the Social Security issue ... give him credit for tackling an issue no other politician wants to handle," he said.
Rendell responded to a question regarding incoming Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean with a big sigh, drawing laughter from the audience. Voicing his concern with Dean's ability to communicate, Rendell commented that Dean has a bad habit of saying things that are "over the top."
Rendell was also asked about his greatest failure, to which his reply was: "You mean beside losing two major political elections?"
