“May you never be on my show,” Jerry Springer told his audience at Northwestern on Monday night.

Springer, whose public life has included positions as a news anchorman and a politician, played down his role as a controversial talk show host and focused on current events in his speech, “Media, Politics, the NU Experience.” The former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati lambasted the Bush administration for its foreign policy in Iraq and its domestic social failures.

Springer, Law ’68, used his personal success story — his immigrant family escaped the Holocaust and became independently wealthy — as an example of the American Dream that he said has become less of a reality.

“Elitism is engulfing the power of America and the result is we are in danger of losing the middle class,” Springer told an audience of about 700 at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

But Springer said he fears that for the first time, middle class families are raising children who will not be better off than their parents. A major reason for this, he said, is that college tuition is unaffordable for everyone but the wealthy.

“This is the first evidence that the middle class will not have it so well,” he said, adding that the situation is even more dire for the poor.

Bush’s tax cuts have done even more to serve the rich at the expense of the poor, he said.

“It’s obscene what I get back with a Bush tax cut,” he said. “Wealthy people continue to get their interest protected, and middle America, you sweat.”

Springer also suggested ways to improve America’s schools. He emphasized early childhood programs in high-poverty school districts, reducing classroom sizes, and offering free college tuition to students majoring in mathematics, science and nursing — high-demand areas in the job market. Springer said if the nation can offer free tuition in exchange for military defense, it should offer the same for what he called “a national offense,” enriching American minds.

Springer said he thought it was deplorable that the American government authorized funding for rebuilding Iraq but not for improving American schools.

Attacking Iraq was a serious mistake regardless of whether Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, he said.

“Even if I accepted everything the President said as gospel, it was still a foolhardy decision to bomb Baghdad,” he said.

While many of Springer’s views were applauded by the audience, his criticism of the Iraq war didn’t sit well with some audience members. Andy Grossman, the father of a prospective student from Rye Brook, N.Y., said he was glad his country didn’t “wimp out” like those that stayed out of the war.

“I think our country had to take a stand,” Grossman said. “Iraq is a cancer that needs to be cut off at the head. Someone had to go in and clean it up.”

In response to audience questions, Springer said he recognized his show may damage his credibility for speaking about serious issues. But aside from the few hours he spends taping his show, a major part of his life is dedicated to political action, he said.

“I’m sure the show hurts my reputation, but it lets me do a lot of stuff I think is valuable,” he said.

Noora Lori, Associated Student Government campus outreach chairwoman, said she was relieved NU students recognized the more serious side of Springer.

M.J. Kenny, a Weinberg freshman, was one of those students.

“You can tell he’s not done politically,” Kenny said. “Despite having the stigma of having a show where transvestites beat each other up, he’s willing to take on more serious issues.”