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Brian Cherry, Associate Editor
Don't Throw Softballs, Mr. O'Reilly
September 4, 2008
O'Reilly vs. Obama: From a
conventional wisdom point of view, this should be the intellectual
equivalent of Godzilla vs. a blueberry Pop Tart. The way most of us
envision this interview happening is that Bill O'Reilly will pepper
Obama with questions regarding his connection to William Ayers, the
"Chicago Annenberg Challenge" the two of them ran together, the millions
of dollars Obama and Ayers spent, Barack's pro-infanticide policies, as
well as a whole host of other issues.
As Barack tries to spin and filibuster
his way through the interview, Bill would stop him, point out that the
candidate is saying nothing of substance, and again demand a clear
answer. Barack, in the face of tough questions regarding the reality of
his past, his terrorist associations, and caught without a teleprompter,
would be reduced a stuttering pile jell-o. This is not a conventional
wisdom election though, and conservatives should be concerned about this
interview.
The timing of the interview should cause
anybody with any sort of political astuteness to get a whiff of
something awful and pungent coming from the general direction of
Denmark. The O'Reilly vs. Obama interview is set for Thursday night;
this is the night that John McCain accepts the Republican nomination,
and gives the conventions most important speech.
This interview is a transparent attempt
by the Obama cartel to take the attention off John McCain, and put it
squarely on Barack. First of all, this is further evidence of the
hypocrisy that we have come to expect from Obama. When the Drudge Report
teased the possibility that the name of McCain's VP pick would be leaked
hours before "The Messiah" burst from his "Oracle of Delphi" set to
deliver the nomination acceptance speech, the "Chosen One" had a hissy
fit.
Dan Pfeiffer of the Obama campaign
angrily told The Politico that such a move would be political
malpractice. Of course McCain didn't leak the name; instead he ran an ad
congratulating Barack on his nomination. He saved the announcement of
his VP pick for the next day.
Considering how the announcement of Sarah
Palin completely wiped out any gains that the speech may have won Obama,
and knocked him completely out of the media spotlight, Barack should
have been grateful that John McCain had held his fire and allowed Obama
to have his night. Had McCain made the announcement before Barack's
speech, the Dem nominee would have been a tree falling in the media
woods.
Barack is very lucky that McCain is a
much better person then he is.
Nobody is going to call Barack a gracious
person, clean and articulate maybe, but not gracious. Instead of showing
his opponent the same courtesy that McCain extended to him, Barack
scheduled a high profile interview for the same night that John McCain
accepts the Republican nomination and gives his own acceptance speech.
Obama will finally be taking questions from Bill O'Reilly on FOX News.
Barack appearing on The O'Reilly factor
will probably get almost as many viewers as the time Connie Chung had a
little chat with Gary
Condit about his missing intern/lover, Chandra Levy. The fact that
Gary's relationship with his missing employee resembled one of those
films where the plumber can't fix a hot chick's sink unless he takes his
pants off first made the Condit/Chung interview a ratings sensation.
On paper this is a risky move
for Obama. Let's face an absolute fact; Obama doesn't even want to be in
the same room as a tough question. His disastrous appearance with Rick
Warren proved what sort of damage he can do to himself when the real
Obama is exposed for all to see. He prefers to have his surrogates and
his mainstream media allies demonize anybody who dares to ask him hard
questions. With that said, why would he agree to appear on O'Reilly's
"No Spin Zone"?
Perhaps he is feeling the heat
of his diminished poll numbers and the fact that he just can't shake
McCain. His campaign is also well aware of the
Bradley affect and how it applies to candidates of color.
Theoretically they need a ten point lead in the polls just to be even.
This may be the genesis for agreeing to an interview that could break
his candidacy; he has far more to lose then gain by answering Bill's
questions. Of course there is another possibility.
This may be a "Campaign built
on Change", but it is not one that is built on risk. He chose a nice,
safe VP, he played the race card when things got tough, and Obama has
avoided situations where he would be forced to clear up some of his
pesky, terrorist associations. Could it be that Obama has a reasonable
expectation of safety from Bill's usual tough line of questioning?
O'Reilly has been called out
by such people as Bernie Goldberg in the past for doing softball
interviews. He has been accused of goinig easy on people who are huge
media personalities, and saving his aggression for folks who are small
fish in the political and cultural pond. Recently such criticisms have
been pointed in his direction over his kid-glove treatment of Ann
Coulter and Hillary Clinton. Most regular viewers of the O'Reilly factor
will probably be split on this issue.
Bill likes to call himself a
culture warrior. It's time for him to get in the arena and prove it by
not buckling to Obama. He should be asking this guy some very hard
questions about his terrorist associations, infanticide policy, copious
conflicting statements, votes to cut funds for the troops, the success
of the Surge, and any other query that Obama has deftly sidestepped. If
Bill gets answers, and helps the voters decide based on who Obama really
is and not how he is packaged, then Mr. O'Reilly will actually live up
the "Cultural Warrior" tag he has bestowed upon himself. If he caves in
and allows Obama to steal McCain's convention spotlight without getting
any answers out of the man, then he has allowed himself and The O'Reilly
Factor to be used as a pawn in one of the Obama cartels political games.
Bill's credibility at that point will be gone.
So Bill,
you have been screaming for this interview for months. You could have
done it on any night, but for some reason you scheduled it on the night
of McCain's acceptance speech. I am guessing the Obama campaign gave you
a "take it or leave it" offer; it was that night or never. Tonight we
learn if you are who you say you are. This is as much a defining moment
for you as it could be for Barack. Either you are the "No Spin" watchdog
you portray yourself as or you prove that your show and your reputation
are for sale to the highest bidder. We will see. |
