PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With the recent appointment of a search committee to identify a new president for Temple University, there has been some recent on- (and off-)campus speculation that former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell could enter the mix of candidates.

Temple’s current president, Ann Weaver Hart, announced two months ago that she would be stepping down at the end of the current academic year.

Rendell, out of office for nearly a year, has already lined up a variety of jobs, among them a position at Harvard, a regular newspaper column, and a gig providing Eagles post-game TV commentary — in addition to representing clients of the law firm of Ballard Spahr, where he is a partner.

Political scientist and pollster Terry Madonna says it seems highly unlikely the former governor and Philadelphia mayor would want to take on a 60-hour-a-week kind of job as Temple’s president.

“It seems a little remote, given what Ed Rendell has done,” Madonna tells KYW Newsradio.  “We’ve got the presidential election next year. He’s an NBC-MSNBC commentator. That will give him a lot of attention on primetime television coverage, and I think a lot of that would diminish and have to go away. Presidents of universities typically don’t venture into comments about government and politics.”

Madonna calls the Rendell speculation “wishful thinking” on the part of some Temple loyalists.

Reported by Mark Abrams, KYW Newsradio 1060