Back to business, or in the case of the Tygrrrr Express, politics.
Hillary Clinton may be more craven than the average politician, but she is no dummy. With her campaign on the verge of being nothing more than a spectacular collapse, she is determined to try everything and anything. Her latest act of desperation involves going on the O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly.
When she was trying to win the hearts and what passes for minds of the leftist lunatics that hate anything and everything that is decent and right, she bragged about standing up to Bill O’Reilly. She was basically Christopher Dodd with breasts (Then again, his years of drinking…never mind). Now that her campaign is on the verge of resembling that of Mr. Dodd, right down to the drinking shots, she has given up on the fringes and decided to triangulate back to the center. She will talk to the man she has previously denigrated.
First of all, democrats react to Bill O’Reilly the way republicans react to Al Queda. The left sees O’Reilly, who last time I checked was merely an individual asking tough questions, as evil. Reporters are supposed to ask tough questions.
Nevertheless, regardless of her motives, Hillary entered the No Spin Zone. I expected Mr. O’Reilly to be polite. He knows how to show respect without being too deferential. If anybody expected him to call her a pinhead, they were sorely disappointed. With that, below is my review and analysis of Hillary’s appearance on the O’Reilly Factor.
The beginning was a discussion about Pastor Jeremiah Wright, and Hillary mixed mock indignation with an unwillingness to pile on too much.
Then the conversation turned to energy policy. Hillary stated “We are not acting like Americans. We are not in charge. We need to be in charge.” I do not know what this means. She even said, “There is no basis for oil companies to have these windfall profits.” That is socialism.
O’Reilly was incredulous when Hillary stated that she would “take on OPEC.” She would sue them. She might honestly believe that they would listen to her.
She deflected when O’Reilly pointed out that Bill Clinton did nothing for 8 years on energy policy.
O’Reilly then really went aggressive, saying that Hillarycare would bankrupt the country. Hillary demurred like a sweet girl, shaking her head and saying, “no I’m not, I’m not.” Yet health care is her strong suit in terms of arguing. She insisted that she was not starting a new bureaucracy. She wants to regulate the companies. O’Reilly was surprisingly aggressive, and Hillary did not back down. The debate was tough but civilized.
O’Reilly does not want higher taxes, and Hillary was very smug in saying O’Reilly did well in the 1990s.
Hillary praised Ronald Reagan for forming a blue ribbon social security commission with Tip O’Neill.
O’Reilly pointed out that Hillary wants income redistribution, taking from the wealthy and giving to the less affluent. O’Reilly outright stated that her income redistribution plan is socialism. She claimed that she was the same as Teddy Roosevelt.
They continued to spar on taxes, with O’Reilly saying that his neighborhood on Long Island worked because tax rates were low. Hillary said that was untrue, and pointed to tax rates in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
They did not reach agreement, but this forum allowed Hillary to fight, which is her specialty. These are two diametrically opposed views, O’Reilly and Hillary, and they both offered their vision forcefully.
O’Reilly asked Hillary if she was more polarizing than Obama, and if he was nicer. Hillary was very tough on this question, announcing that she has been bipartisan, however toughness is required to take on oil and drug companies.
O’Reilly then pointed out that Upstate New York has suffered the last few years, and that Hillary blamed President Bush. He also pointed out that New Yorkers pay the highest taxes in the nation.
He then asked her about the report showing Fox News was more fair towards her than other networks. When asked if she was surprised, she demurred, and then reaffirmed that running for President is a tough job, and that she is tested.
I was surprised by the tone of the interview. O’Reilly was quite pushy.
I like O’Reilly. I dislike Hillary. Yet he was more combative than I expected, and she handled herself very well. While this was not a debate per se, Hillary did well in this forum.
O’Reilly should have been softer in his tone. It is one thing to ask tough questions, but it almost seemed as if he was shouting at her. A certain amount of dignity needs to be adhered to when interviewing a Presidential candidate. This does not mean a softball interview has to take place, but O’Reilly simply went too far.
The rest of the interview will take place a day later, but the first part was Hillary at her best, and O’Reilly far from that. O’Reilly was unctious. Hillary usually is, but not on this day.
It was a good interview for her.
eric