Obama Meets O'Reilly: No One Dies!

Barack Obama sat down to an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on Fox tonight and - shockingly - it looked like a TV interview. Though he was speaking with Democrats' most reviled host on their most disparaged network, no one Photoshopped his head onto Osama bin Laden's body or produced Jeremiah Wright from behind a secret panel.

Instead - in the first of four segments designed to milk the interview - Obama had a combative but respectful back-and-forth with O'Reilly, tonight on the subject of national security. O'Reilly asked first if Obama believed we are in a "war on terror," a kind of semantic loyalty oath to see if he would hedge on the term. "Absolutely," he said.
O'Reilly led him through questions on Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, occasionally bickering with Obama ("You're not going to send ground troops [into Pakistan], and you know it!") or making a pronouncement without asking a question. Obama pressed his case that the war in Iraq had misdirected America's resources, saying that the surge had worked "beyond our wildest dreams" but placing that in the context of the cost of the preceding five years of the war and reminding O'Reilly that the Iraqis have not yet stepped up to self-governance. (And, in what was probably an intentional dig at McCain, making the point that he knew the distinction between Sunni and Shi'a.)
Obama's visit came in a campaign notable for candidates avoiding various media. Most Democratic candidates, including Obama, largely shunned Fox during the primaries. (Obama has gone on Fox News Sunday.) John McCain canceled on Larry King earlier this week to punish CNN for Campbell Brown's having dared to ask a McCain aide too many follow-up questions about Sarah Palin's foreign policy credentials. And Palin, thus far, has been avoiding all national media interviews, save one with People magazine.
Michael Wolff reports in the current Vanity Fair that Obama's rapprochement with Fox happened after an air-clearing meeting with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News chief Roger Ailes. And it's about time. For God's sake, if you think it's in America's interest to speak to international adversaries, you ought to be able to sit down with a guy whose TV show you don't like.
The Democratic argument against "legitimizing" Fox News by appearing was as ridiculous as McCain's snub of softballer King and Palin's residency in the Candidate Protection Program - and politically counterproductive, to boot. Is Fox Karl Rove's new home? Fine. Did it flog the Wright story, call Michelle Obama "baby mama" and suggest a "terrorist fist bump"? Sure. Did O'Reilly get in a scuffle with an Obama staffer on a New Hampshire rope line? Hey, who hasn't? The fact remains that - according to Pew Research - over half of Fox News' audience members are Democrats or Independents. Their votes are legitimate, whether Fox News is or not.
And to continue to freeze out Fox would go against one of Obama's most consistent messages: that people are sick of red-vs.-blue America divisions and that we should be able to talk with people who disagree with us. In that sense, Obama made his strongest argument simply by showing up.
O'Reilly at least gave Obama props for that. In typical O'Reillian fashion, the host had two analysts on immediately after the segment, essentially to assess how well he had interviewed Obama (verdict: great!), and O'Reilly praised him for coming onto the show. "He's a tough guy, Obama ... I looked at him eye to eye - he's not a wimpy guy."
Obama, after all, had stared down Papa Bear. And in the No-Spin Zone, that's the greatest leadership credential of all. View this article on Time.com

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[Viconiuz]

O'Reilly has no manners. He simply can't shut the fuck up and let Obama answer, because he's too damn bent on just getting his _own_ point across.

[rybpo7]

Barack rocks! As always...

[SuperMegaUberGenius]

no oreilly you are a liberl douchebag and you die

seriosly

go have your flippants bury your body on the beach

holy hosT? fuyck islam ishall kill all islman Onbama and hangu with the lsd of the cia immediately

true muslim die

/watch?v=onzH6fcp4sc

[SJMcDevitt]

Ron Paul 2012...these goons suck..

RON PAUL!

[Thorbie]

4:36 No no no no no no no

[pailmaster]

yes alqieda or how you spell it is bad thats true but they havn't been stopped at all

but alquida is only a symptom not the problem we have to focus on why they are being terorrists

sure we could keep going after them but when they are gone there will just come another groupe

i am hating that we can't all get along to a certain degree

you can't get along with everyone that's true

all that hate and killing hurts my soul

somebody has to make a peacefull way because if nobody then who?

[bareRIP]

wasnt a president by then



[wiparker824]

"You're not going to send ground troops in there and you know it"

-Bill O'Reilly (on chasing Osama Bin Laden into Pakistan)

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[diathugs]

i used to doubt Obama because of what everyone was saying, and i think that is what O'Reily was trying to do. but now this video made me go back to my first opinion: Obama is a good president!

[diathugs]

dumb O'Reily... i used to doubt Obama because of what everyone was saying, and i think that is what O'Reily was trying to do. but now this video made me go back to my first opinion: Obama is a good president!

[vik238]

O'Reilly is so full of SHIT

[majast20]

sarah and katie: sarah is too incompetent to answer fair questions

bill and barack: bill tries to grill obama but he answers and discusses in a complete and capable manner.

is it any wonder why he is our president? really?