Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Health Care Debate
President Barack Obama told Bill O'Reilly that he doesn't take the criticism against him personally and that he's not bothered when people say they hate him.
In a disturbing interview that was filled with loaded questions, such as, "Do you deny that you are a man who wants to redistribute wealth?" and "Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?" Obama managed to stay calm.
"The people who dislike you don't know you. The folks who hate you, they don't know you," Obama said during an interview with O'Reilly before the Super Bowl. "What they hate is whatever fun house mirror image of you that's out there. They don't know you."
That response could have been leveled at O'Reilly and Fox News for some of the outrageous, false and incendiary comments they've issued at the president and his policies during the last two years. O'Reilly called Obama "Robin Hood Obama" in 2008.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told Gayle King the question was completely inappropriate.
"To hear this used in the presence of the president of the United States -- I think we all have to recognize that while we disagree with people and may think that they are wrong, the word 'hate' should never be used," Pelosi said.
The question was inappropriate, amateurish and designed to invoke controversy.
In September, Obama criticized Fox News, saying:
"It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world," Obama said about the opinions of Fox News.
Obama probably agreed to the interview because it has become a tradition, and declining to sit with Fox News would have made more news than actually suffering through the interview.
Obama said that he remains the same person, even as he looks to re-election in 2012:
"I'm the same guy," Obama said. "And my practical focus, my common-sense focus is how do we out-innovate, out-educate, out-build and out-compete the rest of the world? How do we create jobs here in the United States of America? How do we make sure that businesses are thriving? But how do we also make sure ordinary Americans can live out the American dream, because right now they don't feel like they are?"
Obama also described how difficult it is to be president:
"I think that the thing you understand intellectually but that you don't understand in your gut until you're in the job is that every decision that comes to my desk is something that nobody else has been able to solve," he said. "The easy stuff gets solved somewhere by somebody else. By the time it gets to me, you don't have easy answers."
And that's what Fox News should remember as it issues opinion after opinion from people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and then label it "news." There used to be a clear distinction between the two, and Americans have not taken the steps to force media outlets like Fox News to distinguish the difference between news and opinion.
The nonsense continued this morning as 'Fox & Friends' hosts said Obama was trying to take credit for the Bush-era tax cuts in the O'Reilly interview. That clearly did not happen.
O'Reilly said that he disagrees with the president but believes him to be fair:
"I enjoy talking to you," O'Reilly said in closing. "I disagree with you sometimes. I hope you think I'm fair to you. I try to be, but I wish you well in the next two years."
No one believes that nonsense but O'Reilly himself. President Obama may be gracious, but he sure isn't dumb.