Columnist Susan Snyder: Listeners can benefit from Gene’s research

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Las Vegas transplant Gene Smith almost got to be president once.

OK, so it wasn't that close. But he did run for the White House in 1992.

Four years later he almost got to be Ross Perot's running mate. He says Olympic officials almost took his advice when he tried to mediate the Soviet Union's 1984 boycott of the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. And he almost got to unseat Mary Bono for California's 44th District U.S. Congressional seat.

Now he lives here, and this 73-year-old bundle of energy and ideas says he almost has a radio talk show.

"We're working out the details," Smith said.

We were having coffee in a local diner. Smith, who works as a business consultant and holds degrees in psychology, looks every bit the polished politician. Nice suit. Good eye contact. Firm handshake.

But after unsuccessful attempts to go to Washington, Mr. Smith figures maybe it's not his best venue after all. He says he won't kowtow to special interests or settle for compromises that don't settle a problem. Those things are what's wrong with the current public system, he said.

The regular people have lost their voices, Smith said. And he hopes he can get a radio show that will give it back to them and use them to find solutions to society's problems.

"The (political) party system stinks," Smith said, in a tone that elicited glances from other diners. "All you have to do is spend $10 million and buy a seat."

He says he spent $150,000 trying to beat Bono and it "was like dropping money into the Grand Canyon."

Smith's right-hand woman is his wife, Lane, with whom he has co-written a book and who will help produce the show. She says it is designed to move beyond the usual rantings of today's shows.

"It's one thing to blast off, but you're never satisfied," she said. "There's no bringing problems to solutions. (Listeners) will have closure, which never happens today."

Smith says he will rely on his mediation skills to bring his guests to a resolution. It may take a few shows to get there, but he is confident they will.

"The only reason I think that we'll be controversial is that people haven't been hitting the issues right between the eyes," he said. "We (as a society) have a lot of anger, and 9/11 enhanced that.

"We really haven't admitted to ourselves the vulnerability of this nation, and we are very vulnerable," he said. "As big and powerful as we are, we still really have to look at ourselves."

People were looking at us again. If the reaction of those in the restaurant were any indication, this guy won't be at a loss for call-ins.

Smith concedes it's not going to be easy to see past the American stars and stripes emblazoned on everything from teething rings to Birkenstocks. And he seems totally unfazed by the fact that although he has a pretty good concept for a radio show and enough ideas to fill the time, he doesn't actually have one -- yet.

Maybe it comes from running marathons (yeah, he does those, too). This guy knows what it's like to be in it for the long haul, even when it's uphill. People aren't failures, he says. Plans fail. People only fail when they quit trying.

"I want to make some things happen that are going to make this world better," he said.