Bill O’Reilly announced that he “does not endorse political candidates” in his Talking Points commentary last night. Then he proceeded to lay a case for viewers to vote Republican anyway.
O’Reilly announced:
Talking Points does not endorse political candidates because if I say vote for this one, three days later that person could be indicted. But the real reason I don’t get involved with partisan politics is because it’s my job to keep an eye on all the powerful people in America. If I have a rooting interest, that could skew my mandate. So I don’t support political candidates. I never tell anyone for whom I vote and I try to keep it fair down the line.
That being said, there is no question the Obama administration is having trouble almost everywhere. Every fair-minded person knows that.
That being said, there is no question that O'Reilly will be voting Republican today.
O’Reilly went into great detail about what’s wrong with the policies of President Obama and the Democrats:
It’s clear President Obama’s economic policies have not helped working Americans. The key indicator: your take-home pay has gone down since he’s been in office. President Obama and the Democratic Party believe the federal government should essentially run the economy. The President and Congress have poured nearly $1 trillion taxpayer dollars into the marketplace and all we have to show for it is a two percent growth rate per year on average—two percent.
That’s not quite all we have to show for it. As David Letterman and Rachel Maddow noted, unemployment has fallen and the stock market is booming. That booming stock market has undoubtedly helped O’Reilly quite nicely.
But O’Reilly wants you to think the Democrats have ruined the private economy:
It’s simple. The feds can’t run the private economy. It’s not working. And that is a Democratic philosophy: big government many regulations, high taxation. Again it’s not working.
But wait, O’Reilly has more reasons you shouldn’t trust the Dems:
Overseas, things are a mess. We don’t have to go through Putin, ISIS, Iran or many other problems again. z
Finally, the most important thing for the future, education, also not doing well. According to Cato Institute, spending on American students is more than double since 1970 – to almost $13,000 per student each year - among the highest spending in the world. But SAT scores have declined three percent since the 1970’s. Spending does not translate into good education. Discipline does. Both teachers and students must be held accountable in the classroom. By and large, the Democratic Party opposes that philosophy.
After that lengthy criticism of Democrats, O’Reilly made a disingenuous feint at balance by briefly and generally critiquing Republicans - before summing up with the blatant suggestion that Democratic faults are worse:
Now there is little I can say about the Republican Party because there’s no cohesive message. The battle between conservatives and moderates continues to rage. The GOP has no visible leadership, no unity and a terrible image among minority voters. But the failure of the Democratic Party overrides the inertia - word of the day, "inertia" - of the Republican Party. That is why the GOP is favored to win tomorrow.
If the GOP doesn’t win today, it won’t be because their BFFs at Fox News didn’t do their best to help.
Watch the Talking Points commentary from last night's The O'Reilly Factor, below.
But BOR does – he presents himself as supposedly being impartial/unbiased when he isn’t. It’s a carefully constructed facade that he’s spent many years building. All one has to do is watch the sly manner in which BOR presents his reports and, more importantly, the stuff that he deliberately chooses not to tell the folks (such as the bad behavior/negative news that wouldn’t reflect well on the GOP/conservative/traditionalist community and its leaders/members). You’re exactly right in that BOR pushes an agenda despite his bogus claims to the contrary. Far too often, BOR is a whirling dervish in his own “no spin” zone. If he were up front about what he’s really doing, I (and probably many others too) would respect him more. But, instead of being honest with the folks, he plays us for fools in hopes that none of us are paying close enough attention to what he’s really doing – and that I cannot respect.
You might very well be right in that BOR would garner more respect if he were to drop the disingenuous agenda pushing. That would be quite a change for him and I don’t know if BOR is up to the challenge. He’s gotten pretty fat and comfy being the, ahem, “fair & balanced” guy there at FOX “news”. LOL!
The sad thing as far as I’m concerned is that O’Reilly is a very smart and well-informed guy and he is not the kind of partisan ideologue that, say, Hannity is. If he were to present his thoughts honestly and without trying to disingenuously push an agenda, I think he’d get a lot more respect. Maybe not from Fox but O’Reilly could do without them if he really wanted.
Yet Mr. “Fair & Balanced” had no problem coming up with a whole list why the folks shouldn’t be voting for Dems. I remember back during run-up to the 2008 election when he spent his airtime fear-mongering about how things would supposedly go to hell should Obama get elected and Pelosi remain Speaker of the House. And, pitifully, over the past few years, BOR hasn’t gotten any better with his supposed non-ideological analysis.
Give up the charade, BOR – you are biased in favor of the right and this skew is evident on every show despite some of your sleight of hand attempts to fool the folks. Over the years you’ve done a piss poor job of “keeping your eye on the powerful people” on the right. Your phony “I’m impartial” isn’t fooling anyone with an ounce of sense. You’re a fraud and a hypocrite.
Btw, BOR, AL FRANKEN was Re-ELECTED and is going to work for a better America for the folks. I have no doubt that this is eating you up inside because you only offer up spin and divisiness to the folks. It will be a better America the day you retire your talking points and your bogus “no spin” zone disappears from the teevee.
’Nuff said.
