Obama meets O’Reilly and escapes alive

Barack Obama went head to head last night with the Fox News channel's grand inquisitor Bill O'Reilly (pictured) in the first of four segments of an interview to be spread over four nights. As the New York Times put it afterwards, it always promised to be a "wonk vs wacko" match: the cerebral Obama versus one of television's most irascible anchors, a man who calls liberals "loons" and "pinheads" and who on Thursday's show described reporters scrutinising John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin of Alaska as "sniveling, left-wing, wine-drinking, brie-eating".

Obama had agreed to do the interview, as reported on The First Post yesterday, only after the personal intervention of the channel's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch. The subject for part one was national security. How did Obama fare?

According to Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times, "O'Reilly, as is his wont, spoke brusquely, interrupted, argued and didn't let his guest off th hook. He told Mr Obama he had 'bloviated' in parts of his convention speech, but congratulated him on his early opposition to the war, saying he had been 'perspicacious'."

When O'Reilly demanded that Obama admit that he was wrong to oppose the military surge, his guest refused to give in, while acknowledging that the surge had succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams". But Obama added, "The Iraqis still haven't taken responsibility. And we still don't have that kind of political reconciliation."

Stanley writes: "Obama is known for the subtlety and nuance of his answers; Mr O'Reilly has no patience for either. And accordingly, they had a bracing exchange."

Asked to list America's enemies, Obama responded, "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." He said he would "never take military action off the table" in the case of Iran. Just what O'Reilly wanted to hear.

On the News Hounds blog - motto: 'we watch Fox so you don't have to' - 'Deborah' writes that before watching the first segment of the interview, viewers were forced to watch 40 minutes of "Palin worship" plus "partisan insights and distortions" from Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Megyn Kelly.
"Obama was set up for sure before the interview even aired and it was clear that O'Reilly was playing to the Fox News base. However, even though O'Reilly was rude and determined to make himself look good, Obama was tough, confident, well informed and a perfect gentleman."

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 5, 2008