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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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"There's no doubt about it, the Republican crowd in St. Paul loved Governor Sarah Palin. She came across as normal, feisty, and unafraid. It is obvious that the McCain campaign is positioning Palin as 'every woman,' a person rather than a politician, and it worked last night. It was obvious Wednesday night that Palin has no use for the media, saying 'I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion.' It was great theater, but there's no question the governor still has some work to do in building her resume so non-partisan voters will be reassured. She went on to cite her expertise in energy and her reform record, but then came back to criticizing Barack Obama as a man who has 'authored two memoirs but not a single major law.' That was entertaining, red meat to the GOP voters, and what it means in the long run is debatable. What is not debatable is that last night Sarah Palin became a big star."
News Link: Palin speech gets rave reviews
The Factor asked political strategist Karl Rove to dissect Sarah Palin's speech. "I thought it was very powerful," Rove said, "when she talked about her responsibilities as governor and what she had done. But there are now some risks. The media is going to ask when are you going to do an interview with O'Reilly, when are you going to do your first town hall meeting, when are you going to do your first interview on foreign affairs? The media is going to raise the bar." The Factor depicted Palin as the rarest of political figures. "It's the first time since Ronald Reagan that the Republicans have had a 'media star.' This is a tremendous advantage to John McCain."
The Factor also invited two prominent Democrats to opine on Sarah Palin and her speech. "This woman is a star," Jami Floyd admitted, "and for the Republicans that's a big deal. It would be disingenuous for any woman to say she's not excited about the Palin pick. John McCain has reenergized his base with this, but he has got to get independent voters." But Tanya Acker asserted that Palin's speech was more style than substance. "One of fastest ways to cast yourself as a media darling is to position yourself as a Washington outsider, and she did a fantastic job at that. This speech was big on political theater, but very short on facts. She made some points about Senator Obama's record that bear correcting." |
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The Factor spoke with former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engaged in an on-air confrontation with an NBC News reporter when the reporter questioned Sarah Palin's experience. "I didn't go after him," Gingrich explained, "I went after the core of his question. No one in the elite media wants to go out and look at Barack Obama's association with the terrorist William Ayers. And there is a one-sided notion that writing an autobiography and appearing on a talk show counts as experience, but being a governor doesn't count. Those of us who lived through the efforts of the elite to destroy Clarence Thomas have seen this before and we know how the left operates." The Factor advised Gingrich to stay tuned: "I did ask Obama about Bill Ayers and that will be on the air Tuesday. Senator Obama was straightforward and it will be interesting for the country to see it. We're going to deal with a lot of culture issues."
News Link: Video: Newt Gingrich rips NBC reporter |
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The magazine "Us Weekly," in one notorious example of bias in the entertainment media, published a cover story of Governor Palin with the headline "Babies, Lies & Scandal." The Factor spoke with Megyn Kelly, who challenged an "Us Weekly" editor on Fox News. "The cover is so misleading," Kelly declared. "He couldn't point to any lies she had told and he said they were talking about lies said about Sarah Palin. The article mentioned Todd Palin's DUI arrest, but not that it was 22 years ago. This is not fair journalism. That article was, at best, incomplete, and, at worst, blatantly biased." The Factor pointed out that "Us Weekly" is run by a prominent liberal. "The owner of that magazine, Jann Wenner, is a big Democrat. So to please their boss, they go a certain direction."
News Link: Video: Megyn Kelly obliterates US Weekly editor |
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Senator Barack Obama finally sat down for an extended interview with The Factor, which was conducted Thursday in York, Pennsylvania. Here are some excerpts from the first part of the interview, dealing with national security:BILL O'REILLY: Do you believe we are in the middle of a war on terror?
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: Who is the enemy?
OBAMA: Al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America, who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the faith of Islam. And so we have to go after them.
O'REILLY: Is Iran part of that component?
OBAMA: Iran is a major threat, but they are not part of the same network.
O'REILLY: How threatening do you feel Iran is?
OBAMA: It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon, that would be a game-changer ... I will never hesitate to use our military force in order to protect the homeland and United States interests. But where I disagree with you is the notion that we've exhausted every other resource.
O'REILLY: All right, let's go to Iraq. I think history will show it's the wrong battlefield, and I think you were perspicacious in your original assessment. But I think you were desperately wrong on the surge and should admit it to the nation.
OBAMA: I think that there is no doubt that the violence is down. I believe that is a testimony to the troops that were sent and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I think the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated - by the way, including President Bush and the other supporters.
O'REILLY: If it were up to you and Joe Biden, there wouldn't have been a surge.
OBAMA: If you look at the debate that was taking place, we had gone through five years of mismanagement of this war that I thought was disastrous. And the president wanted to double down and continue on an open-ended policy that did not create the kinds of pressure on the Iraqis to take responsibility and reconcile. We have reduced the violence, but the Iraqis still haven't taken responsibility.
O'REILLY: Let's go to Afghanistan. There's no winning the Taliban war unless Pakistan cracks down on the guys who are in Pakistan. You gave a speech in Denver in which you bloviated about McCain not following Osama Bin Laden to his cave. You're not going to invade Pakistan if you're president, you're not going to send ground troops in.
OBAMA: What we can do is stay focused on Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Pakistanis. For example, we are providing them military aid without strings attached ... what we should say is that we're going to provide them with additional military support targeted at terrorists, and we're going to help build their democracy. We wasted $10 billion with Musharraf without holding him accountable for knocking out those safe havens. And what I will do is, if we have Bin Laden in our sights, we target him and we knock him out. The interview will continue Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with domestic policy and frank questions about Senator Obama's past associations.
News Link: Obama enters the No Spin Zone |
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| The Factor asked Fox News analysts Jane Hall and Monica Crowley to critique the first installment of the Obama interview. "I thought he did a good job," Hall said, "of explaining the contradiction you pointed out. He explained, as well as he has so far, why he is still questioning the surge. A lot of people who do not believe in Obama think he may be weak, and he answered as well as I've seen him answer." But Monica Crowley gave Senator Obama a lower grade. "I give Barack Obama credit for coming into the No Spin Zone at long last. You hit him with some tough and specific questions, such as if he is prepared to engage Iran militarily. He was a little evasive on that. And on Iraq, the thing that really struck me was that he went as far as he ever has in saying the surge has succeeded. But he looks incapable of admitting a mistake." |
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Thursday's Patriot: Singer Carrie Underwood, who is donating the proceeds from her upcoming single to combat cancer. And the Pinhead: Elton John, who "joked" about his capacity to consume cocaine. Nominate a Pinhead or a Patriot by sending an email to pnp@billoreilly.com.
News Link: Carrie Underwood sings to combat cancer |
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