Obama veers into Carterland

So Obama clearly had his work cut out for him appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s show. But O’Reilly couldn’t be happier with this first part of the interview. What a #$# disaster for Obama. The clip’s at the end of this (and at this link): but on question after question Obama comes off as a waffler. If he goes into the debates like this, he’s going to get taken apart. Play by play:

First, at the beginning; Obama suddenly smiles, and it looks fake as hell. This is undoubtedly Fox News’ little touch (it’s a travesty they call themselves unbiased and fair); he didn’t know when the camera started running, but it’s not a great start.

Second, he’s asked if he thinks Iran is a threat, and he launches into a discussion of Sunni vs. Shiite. Does he think Middle America cares? He should have just said, absolutely, it’s a threat and left it at that.

Third, when he’s asked if he would use military force against Iran if necessary, he says he wouldn’t take the option off the table. A yes answer would have been a little more impressive.

Fourth, when he’s asked would he even PREPARE for the military force option against Iran he starts waffling about all those other great options:  embargos, sanctions, etc., etc., while O’Reilly jumps all over him.  Aargh.

Fifth:  the surge.  This is giving Obama all sorts of trouble, especially because he’s already said the surge has worked “beyond our wildest dreams.”  So naturally when O’Reilly says, “c’mon, admit it, you were right on the decision to go to war, and wrong on the surge, c’mon, just say it,” Obama comes off as stubborn.  There’s a far easier way out of this:  look, Bill, the surge may be working so far, but it hasn’t worked yet….and unless we follow it up with rebuilding and aid to Iraq it’s not going to work….and if we do all that, I’ll be happy to come on your show and say it works but until then how about you shut the fuck up with all your posturing, huh, Bill?

Sixth:  when they get to Pakistan, O’Reilly taunts him with “well, you wouldn’t send in the ground troops”, and Obama doesn’t disagree.  We’ve already HAD ground troops (well, special forces) in Pakistan; why assume anything at this point?

Anyway.  Point being we’ve seen all this before:  Democratic candidates/presidents coming off as being way too reluctant to use military force.  It spells electoral disaster.  And it also makes for weak presidents.

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4 Responses to “Obama veers into Carterland”

  1. David Louis Edelman Says:

    Are you frickin’ kidding me, Williams? I’ve watched the Obama/O’Reilly interview segment twice now, and both times it struck me how absolutely terrific Obama did. Principled, resolute, firm, yet respectful. Quick on his feet and doesn’t back down from a fight. In fact, I specifically made my wife watch the segment because it was so good, and it got us both fired up about Obama.

    I thought the point about how it wasn’t appropriate for him to tip off his hand to Iran about his military plans was a particularly nice touch.

  2. David Williams Says:

    yo DLE- – I’ll be the first to admit my “TV eye” isn’t the best. I thought in the second Kerry vs Bush debate (the town hall one) that Bush was totally losing his marbles/shit, but it turns out that pundits/the public thought he did pretty well.

    Nonetheless I just can’t imagine this clip convincing any undecideds. A question on Iran is the wrong time to start explaining that there was no link between Al-Quaeda and Iraq. 90% of the electorate is deaf to nuance.

  3. David Louis Edelman Says:

    I’m with you about not having the best “TV eye.” I remember that after seeing the first Gore/Bush debate, I thought the Bush campaign would just collapse. I mean, W. was nervous and stammering and flubbing lines left and right, he looked like an idiot. I seriously thought there could be a 10-point surge for Gore after that debate. But no, silly me — turns out, people thought he was just being a bully.

    Whether the Obama/O’Reilly thing will convince any undecideds… I dunno. Personally I think it took a lot of guts for Obama to even appear on a conservative-leaning show like O’Reilly when he was already up by 6 or 8 points in most polls. Somebody’s going to have to see the contrast between Obama bravely going into the lion’s den, and Sarah Palin still refusing to answer any reporters’ questions more than a week after she was put on the ticket…

    Then again… this country has been known to make extremely (W.) stupid (W.) electoral (W.) decisions (W.) before (W.).

  4. meesh Says:

    RE: palin!

    her first interview was with PEOPLE magazine!!
    come ON!
    i wait to see what she has to say this week with charles gibson……she’s going to have to ‘come out of the closet’ at some point, no?

    i just wonder how middle/southern america can be so ignorant…oh wait!

    ignorance is strength!!!