Obama: Your story, and the story—but, but—
O’Reilly: MoveOn, General Betray Us, the Daily Kos?
Obama: I was offended by that. And I, and I said, I was offended by it.
O’Reilly: But you, but you said good things about them. You showed up to the Kos convention.
Obama: But, but look, Bill. Bill.
O’Reilly: You don’t get worse than these.
Obama: Bill. Hold on a second. I mean, there’s a whole bunch of stuff, uh, said on Fox about me, that, that is [chuckles] flagrantly biased.
O’Reilly: Correct the record. Correct the record.
Obama: Well, but I still, I still don’t mind coming on your show. Just because there are a whole bunch of things that may be said on this network that I completely disagree with, I don’t sort of assume that you have to take responsibility for everything that is said on Fox News, any more than I would expect you to take responsibility for everything that’s said on Daily Kos. Think about it. The, the—
O’Reilly: Well, the, that’s a hateful thing. Fox News is not hateful.
Obama: No, they’re not, they’re, they’re, they’re—[Laughs.]
O’Reilly: Oh, it isn’t. The, some of those guys—
Obama [overlap]: Bill. The—
O’Reilly:—Some of our commentators might think—
Obama [overlap]: If, if, if, if you were watching Sean Hannity consistently, you, you would—
O’Reilly: He’s a commentator, though.
Obama: Well, that’s all these bloggers are. I’m not making an excuse for ’em.
O’Reilly: Oh, whoa. Hannity’s never said he wants—
Obama: They, they, they’ve gone—
O’Reilly:—Dick Cheney to die of cancer.
Obama: Hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on a second. All I’m saying is, these guys, they’re giving me a hard time. You know, one, one of the times they gave me a hard time—
O’Reilly: They’re raising the kind of money for you…[inaudible]
Obama [overlap]: You know one of the times they gave me a hard time? Was when I went to campaign for Joe Lieberman. Now, Joe didn’t mention that in his [chuckles] speech—
O’Reilly: They gave you a hard time about voting for the, uh—
Obama: So, so it’s not, all I’m saying is, I expect to be held responsibile for the things I say and do. And one of the things that’s happened in this campaign, and I think that you have the power to help correct the record on this, is not to put me in a position where every tangential relationship—
O’Reilly [overlap]: It is, it is a pattern of behavior here.
Obama: It, it, no, there, it is not a pattern of behavior. It is guilt, it is classic guilt by association. And—
O’Reilly [overlap]: The pattern of behavior is that you feel very comfortable, for some reason, in Far Left precincts. That’s the pattern of behavior.
Obama: But I don’t—O’Reilly: That I see.
Obama: But I, Bill, I’ve got friends who are, who are on the Far Right.
O’Reilly: Who?
Obama: They’re, I’ve got colleagues in the Senate.
O’Reilly: Who? Give me a name.
Obama: Well—
O’Reilly [overlap]: [Laughs.] I always do that.
Obama: Well, no, but, you know, but, but—
O’Reilly: I, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.
Obama:—but here’s what happens, if I give a name, then people—
O’Reilly: [Laughs.]
Obama:—then the next thing I’ll know is, people will say, “They’re comparing this one to that one.”
O’Reilly: Do you know what I wanted to hear?
Obama: “…To Bill Ayers, and I…”
O’Reilly: “I go hobnobbing with Rush Limbaugh.” That’s what I wanted to hear there.
* * *
At the risk of being redundant, let me give this “associations” deal another shot. If you are a dope dealer who sells heroin and cocaine, you are an evil person. You are hurting people, and you know that what you peddle can lead to addiction and even death. But you don’t care.
On the other hand, if you sell marijuana, you might see yourself as benign, as someone just providing a service, a harmless enjoyment to those who seek it. But the truth is, if you are in the drug world, selling hard or soft drugs, you will be exposed to many bad things. There is no avoiding the pernicious associations that permeate that culture.
There is an analogy here. Barack Obama’s entire career has been nurtured by liberal people. Some of them are mainstream, just folks who believe that government has a moral duty to help the downtrodden by creating mandates that require a huge government apparatus and trillions of taxpayer dollars.
But some of the people with whom Mr. Obama has associated in the past are far more than left-wing ideologues. They are extremists. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers are crazy guys, people consumed with hatred toward their own country.
Barack Obama should have avoided these men, but he did not. To him, they were part of the Chicago liberal culture that was supporting his rise to power. The question is: How much sympathy does the President have toward the extremist point of view?
The record shows that he has appointed some hard-core radical people like Van Jones to government offices. So I think it’s safe to say that radical Left beliefs do not offend the President. The Daily Kos is fine with him. George Soros has visited him in the White House on many occasions.
Those facts indicate that the President of the United States has no problem with radical Left thinkers and believers. The evidence shows that he listens to what they have to say. Whether or not he buys into the Soros view of the world is a matter of conjecture. I don’t think old Georgie would be dropping drone missiles on al-Qaeda terrorists, so that’s something.
There’s an old saying that applies here, however: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s Jeremiah Wright at the pulpit. Again, Mr. Obama claims that he just never knew how hateful and radical Wright really is.
Yeah, and I’m Whoopi Goldberg.
So let’s cut through all the fog and clearly state the issue to be sure no one missed it the first time: President Obama is the most liberal chief executive ever to serve in the Oval Office.
Sorry, Jimmy Carter.
* * *
O’Reilly: All right, look, I got one more question that I forgot that’s important.
Obama: Go ahead.
O’Reilly: A hundred and fifty billion to alternative energy in the Obama administration.
Obama: Yeah. Over ten years.
O’Reilly: Okay. Over ten years.
Obama: Yeah.
O’Reilly: To what? To what? What, don’t, aren’t, shouldn’t we have a plan, before we start to spend?
Obama: Oh, no, no.
O’Reilly: Is it going to be ethanol? Is it going to be fuel cells?
Obama: Let, let, let, let, let me—
O’Reilly: What’s it going to be?
Obama: Let, let, let me give you some examples. Uh, number one, uh, we have to extend tax credits for solar, wind, hydro, which is basically the hydro—
O’Reilly: But you’re scattershotting it, though. What if, what if solar wind and hydro don’t work?
Obama: No, no, no. No, no—but, but, but, but that, that was true for the space program. We didn’t—
O’Reilly: Always focus on the space program.
Obama: Kennedy didn’t know how we were going to go to the moon. That, that, the nature of discovery, and research, and innovation, is you put money into a whole bunch of promising pots. It’s like venture capital. And you figure out what works. And some things are going to work, and some things are not. You’re not going to bat a thousand. But here’s what we know. We can’t keep doing the same things we’re doing. Look, I had a meeting with T. Boone Pickens.
O’Reilly [overlap]: I’m with you. I’m with you.
Obama: Here’s an example. T. B
oone, you know, did some things with, uh, respect to John Kerry and voting that I thought, uh—
O’Reilly: No, he’s the wind guy now, and we, I’m with you on that.
Obama:—but he and I sat down and had a conversation because he is absolutely right, that we can’t sustain importing 70 percent of our oil.
O’Reilly: Everybody knows that. But you’ve got to have a plan.
Obama: That’s right. And I, I do have a plan.
O’Reilly: You should get nukes involved. Why are you against nuclear energy, when Sweden does it?
Obama: I am not—I am not against nuclear energy.
O’Reilly: Well, let’s get the plants up!
Obama: Well, okay, why not?
O’Reilly: Let’s start drilling in ANWR [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]. What are you going to—
Obama: Who’s arguing with you?
O’Reilly: Are you afraid, are you afraid of scaring—
Obama: No. Now, ANWR, ANWR I think is a problem for us.
O’Reilly: What, a caribou is going to be scared?
Obama: [Laughs.]
O’Reilly: Come on!
Obama: [Laughs.]
O’Reilly: You, you’re with the folks that complained about heating bills, and you’re worried about a caribou going, “What’s that pipe thing doing?”
Obama: No. But, but, I tell—
O’Reilly: What?? What??
Obama: One of the great things about this country is you travel around, is, you’ve got a, some beautiful real estate here.
O’Reilly: Oh come on. Nobody goes to ANWR.
Obama: We got, we got lots of, we—
O’Reilly: You know, what do you want to do, run shuttles up there?
Obama: We are lucky to have some of the most beautiful, uh, uh, real estate on earth. And we want to make sure that—
O’Reilly [overlap]: You’re making me cry here.
Obama: We want to make sure we’ll pass it on to the next generation, but this notion that I’m opposed to nuclear power, it’s just not true. The notion that I am opposed to—
O’Reilly [overlap]: What I’d like to see—
Obama:—coal, is not true. What I have said is that we’ve got to invest in the technologies that make ’em cleaner.
O’Reilly: That’s swell.
Obama: You and I agree on that.
O’Reilly: But what I’d like to see between now and election day—
Obama: All right.
O’Reilly:—and I think it would get you some votes, is say, Look, this is what I’m going to do.
Obama: Yeah.
O’Reilly: I want to hear, We’re gonna, we’re gonna get this many new plants.
Obama: Right.
O’Reilly: We’re going to put this much into solar. We’re going to get this, this, this. And that would drive down the price of oil.
Obama: I’ll, I’ll help you, uh, uh, I’ll—
O’Reilly: No, that’s your deal. I’m not running for anything.
Obama: No, no, no. I’ll make sure to send that plan, so that you can start advertising it for us.
O’Reilly: Well, you can come back on and tell me.
Obama: I look forward to it.
* * *
So am I a prophet or what? I pounded then-Senator Obama on his objections to drilling in ANWR and his lack of a specific vision for alternative energy, which the country desperately needs.
Then, about a year and a half after that interview, BP befouls the Gulf of Mexico, forcing President Obama to address the nation and to promise to invest billions in nonspecific alternative energy projects. Yes, the President is consistent. No, he is not advancing the energy ball down the court. The United States still does not know how to replace oil.
We could, however, replace deepwater drilling if we opened up ANWR. But the President will not alienate the environmental Left by doing that. I guess it’s better to have pelicans and turtles covered with oil and the saltwater marshes of Louisiana turned into toxic garbage dumps. But, hey, should you care to visit, the Arctic Circle is spotless.
* * *
O’Reilly: All right, now. Final question for you. I think I can kick your butt in one-on-one basketball.
Obama: You’ve got height.
O’Reilly: Okay.
Obama [overlap]: But I think I’ve got speed.
O’Reilly: But you have, but you’ve got youth. I’m an old guy. I’m seventy-three years old.
Obama: Are you seventy-three?
O’Reilly [overlap]: Yeah, this is Botox.
Obama: Is that? You look good, man.
O’Reilly: How many are going to spot me on the—
Obama: What do you eat, to be looking like that at seventy-three?
O’Reilly: I don’t, I don’t eat anything.
Obama: [Laughs.]
O’Reilly: How many are you going to spot me on a one-on-one game, huh?
Obama: Uh…O’Reilly: ’Cause I think I—
Obama: Game to eleven? O’Reilly: Yeah.
Obama: I’d spot you ten.
O’Reilly: All right. You’d spot me ten. That’s pretty cocky.
Obama: [Chuckles.]
O’Reilly: That’s pretty cocky. So now I win, right, I want to be secretary of state.
Obama [overlap]: Now, now I hear you’re, I hear you’re—
O’Reilly: No, no. If I win, I want to be secretary of—
Obama: I hear you’re, I hear you’re a pretty good athlete, but, but your game was football and baseball, right?
O’Reilly: Right.
Obama: Different than basketball.
O’Reilly [overlap]: And I, I think I could—
Obama: But you do have height.
O’Reilly: But white guys can’t jump. You know, I, I think Reverend Wright said that, didn’t he?
Obama: I’m sure he did.
O’Reilly: Ha, ha, ha!
Obama: I think that was Bill O’Reilly.
O’Reilly: Senator, a pleasure.
Obama: I enjoyed it.
O’Reilly: I enjoyed it, too.
Obama: Thank you so much. O’Reilly: I hope you come back.
Obama: We’ll be back. O’Reilly: And good luck in the campaign.
Obama: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
* * *
So I snuck in that Reverend Jeremiah Wright jab. If you saw the interview on TV, you may have noticed that Mr. Obama’s smile dimmed a bit upon hearing that. Some people hammered me for ending the chat with a bit of mindless banter, but I say, give me a break. I appreciated the opportunity to talk with the man and wanted to leave on an up note. After all, he didn’t have to submit to the interview, which, by the way, could very well be the toughest one he’s ever done.
Also, just as I did not dislike President Bush, I don’t dislike President Obama. They are human. They do good things; they do bad things. Like all of us. I enjoy talking to these guys. They are both smart and have experienced incredible things. When I visit the White House for an interview, I am totally engaged. But that doesn’t mean I’m starstruck. My main obligation is to you. I think my interviews with both Presidents demonstrate how I keep that in mind.
For me, things get complicated when a President’s policies adversely affect you. President Bush let Iraq get out of control for a while and did not watch the Wall Street bandits closely enough. The brutal fallout from those failures hurt most Americans.
Right now, President Obama is spending the country into peril. In addition, his liberal view of the world has not resulted in any improvement in the lives of most of us. His big issue, ObamaCare, remains a wild card. Nobody knows how that will work out. What we do know is that it will be expensive and complicated.
Finally, we are now firmly in the age of Obama, a fact that has a direct effect on your life. He is dominating world events but has not delivered on the “hope” promise. “Change,” yes.
In just a short time, the President has become a polarizing figure, who is most lik
ely in over his head as chief executive of the most powerful country the world has ever known. But so were Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan in the beginning of their White House tenures.
As for your place in this age? It’s to assess the country and your personal situation honestly; it’s also to be a loyal citizen no matter what your political and social allegiances.
As Mr. Obama’s first term moves along, polls show that most Americans have lost some confidence in his ability to lead. The blunt truth is that most of us are not better off than we were in the last year of the Bush presidency, not exactly a shining moment for America.
But as my pal Billy Joel once sang, keep the faith. Throughout our gallant history, Americans have always responded to tough situations by fighting through them and electing great men and women to represent us. If President Obama does not institute policies that improve the lives of most Americans, he will be voted out in 2012. I have no doubt. The system will work.
In the meantime, he’s a Patriot for serving his country but also a Pinhead on some important issues. We will know rather soon which label will override the other.
* * *