Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the race to Fox News

Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in at least one race this week: The slow crawl to be first to sit down for interviews with Fox News' marquee talk-show hosts ahead of next week's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
Obama was on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace over the weekend, 772 days after the candidate promised to appear. Clinton followed three days later with a taped appearance Wednesday on "The O'Reilly Factor." Our colleague Matea Gold explores the change of heart in today's paper, and the interesting question of why the two Democratic presidential contenders decided to talk with hosts on a network they had joined in boycotting in August, when they refused to take part in the Fox-sponsored Nevada debate.

Back then, Obama and Clinton were wooing Democratic activists, who tend to be liberal. But with the nomination fight locked in a stalemate and likely to be determined by the superdelegates, the candidates need more than ever to show they can win in November, which means appealing to moderates and conservatives.

And in Indiana and North Carolina, they're fighting for votes in electorates less liberal than in California or New York. There, the fight is for "rural working-class voters" who "have a lot more leverage over the contest than, say, progressive-minded Obama donors in Silicon Valley," Dante Scala, a University of New Hampshire political analyst, told the Ticket. "That's why they avoided Fox early, and now are there late."

Wait -- politicians acting out of political expediency? My, this is a historic race, isn't it?

-- Scott Martelle

Comments

[Young Atheart]

In 2002, Saddam Hussein provoked this nation in to war with just words - saying infamously this will be the "mother of all wars."
In 2008, Rev. Wright's words provoked many Americans in to categorical condemnation though some have softened a bit after a month of endless coverage.
In both cases, Obama showed an uncommon ability to judge intent, not just words. Against Saddam, Obama said "Now let me be clear, I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity....But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, ...I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda."
On Rev. Wright, Obama saw the big difference in intent between the first endlessly looped sermons and his re-justification of those inflammatory statements to the National Press Club. In the first case, Obama saw that Wright's words were in the context of a larger message about positive transformation to his own congregation. In the second case, he said that those same statements to a national audience were intended to hurt and had the effect of giving comfort to hate groups.
Today we have more inflammatory leaders, Iran's Ahmadinajad of Iran, N. Korea's Kim Jong Il and even Russia's Putin who are all trying to provoke America in various ways. We need a leader who can judge intent before he commits the country to action or even categorical condemnation. It gives a chance for more sane action on all sides.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama's_Iraq_Speech

[john]

Neither Hillary Clinton or John McCain wear flag pins on their lapels.

John McCain is on his second marriage to a woman he dated while still married to his first wife.

Hillary Clinton has been knowingly married to a lying, philandering skirt chaser for 33 years.

John McCain actively sought the endorsement of John Hagee, a war mongering, racist, radical right wing preacher who's known for his fiery rhetoric and has publicly called the Catholic church "the great whore".

Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton have earned over $100 million in the last 10 years, not counting 2007.

John McCain is married to a woman estimated to be worth over $100 million.

John McCain's wife Cindy will not release her tax returns.

John McCain uses his wife's private jet in violation of his own campaign finance law.

John McCain admits he understands little about the economy, continually gaffs on foreign policy.

Hillary Clinton grossly inflates her participation in her husband's administration.

Hillary Clinton lies on Bosnia sniper fire.

In a 1994 discussion on whether to help the working poor Hillary Clinton said to President Clinton, and a room full of her husband’s Administration, “Screw’em, we don’t owe them anything Bill.”

Food for thought.

[Betty]

Obama sat down with Chris Wallace
Hillary sat down with Bill O
There is a big difference there
Bo doesnt talk with any one he thinks will back him in a corner including Hillary
BO had no problem with any thing Wright had to say until
it threatened his persona as a runner in the race
MO refuses to comment on her long relationship with Wright just presses the move on crap
No mother with a brain would allow her children to attend a church and have a great uncle who spewed the things he did

[Ellie]

The title of this article is misleading and untrue. Hillary Clinton was on Fox News with Greta Van Sustern weeks ago. I guess that doesn't mean much does it? At least print the facts, thanks. And Hillary did a million times better than Obama and always does. I can't believe the people rooting for Obama are blatantly making up the fact that he seems relaxed and good in personal one on one interviews. The man sucks, he still says nothing of substance, and he has a hard time putting his thoughts into words when on the spot without the teleprompter. Would someone PLEASE wake up the media and the pundits. If the people want Hillary, ITS UP TO YOU INDIANA AND NORTH CAROLINA....you gotta do it for us. GO HILLARY!!

[Steve]

When all is Said and Done Obama Bamboozled US…

I hope Hillary wins this election and have so much faith that she is the one who truly will buck the status quo and work hard for the changes people of the USA want and deserve.

All these months I have watched in horror as Obama and his surrogates viciously attacked Hillary 24/7, all the while double-talking that she is Negative and he’s above the fray. His campaigns Mantra was “Hillary lies” while he lied about his family, lied about Rev. Wright, lied so easily and with such finesse, it drove me nuts to see him painting Hillary as “the biggest liar in government” when Obama lied at the Democratic Convention from day one saying his father grew up in a tin house when his family were wealth landowners and Obama’s father was an Internationally educated intellectual from an elite background. He lied again in Selma. He told a congregation he would bring the kingdom down to earth. He was compared to JFK, RFK, MLK, FDR, Reagan and Jesus, and all this time, I saw before me someone who appeared to be a brilliant con man.

I wondered if his goal had been from the start to sell a fortune in books and stop Hillary. Maybe he was a Bush operative. His friend of 17 years Rezko was connected to Bush and fund raised for Bush and Obama. Who knows, what I did sense from the start was Obama is not sincere, and he is vicious and Negative an he uses Hypnotism, Religious Revival, and Jihad techniques and Peer Pressure, to brainwash people starting with the youngest Americans, and Black people, and some others. I never fell for Obama’s charisma, he seemed evil to me from the start and appeared to have no soul and no conscience.

This video tells it all… Obama Bamboozled US, and frankly, I find the notion of him as President Scary and if elected he could easily be worse than George Bush… I really believe that.

Watch 2X’s it’s hard to get it all the first time:
Barack Obama: There Will Be Bamboozling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuB_W8o_UsU

[Cass]

Wow. You make it sound like Obama beat Hillary to the punch with Fox, and come to find out from another post, Fox News with Greta Van Sustern weeks ago.

Was this an Obama/Axelrod placed story to make Obama look good, when really Hillary is the superior candidate in every way, from experience to integrity, Obama trails Hillary. That the least experienced candidate in Modern history even came this far... well chalk it up to the media giving him special treatment, and this is yet one more example.

[Curt B]

I must comment (correct) the last paragraph of the first posting.

Posted by: Young Atheart | May 02, 2008 at 11:09 AM
"Today we have more inflammatory leaders, Iran's Ahmadinajad of Iran, N. Korea's Kim Jong Il and even Russia's Putin who are all trying to provoke America in various ways. We need a leader who can judge intent before he commits the country to action or even categorical condemnation. It gives a chance for more sane action on all sides."

Take note of the use of the word, "Today"!

Ahmadinajad has no real power. He's nothing but a puppet of the Ayatollah's, and it's been that way for every Iranian President since 1979.

Kim Jong Il, aka "Dear Leader", a Daffy Duck fan today for those of you who may be interested, yet a psycho leader following his Dear psycho fathers death in 1994.

Putin was KGB from 1985 to 1990. He assumed the Presidency in 2000.

My point is these people have been around the block enough times to make Obama's head spin. As if it weren't already spinning on a swivel considering he can't remember anything Wright's said, or stood for, prior to the speech (rant) at the National Press Club on April 28, 2008.

Lastly, you're supporting Obama for his great ability to "judge intent". Isn't it blatantly obvious that Obama completely lacks any form of judgement at all?

I recall Obama stating, "Clinton" (Hillary), "will say and do anything to become President". Isn't it just a little ironic how that statement can turn around and bite someone in the....rear end?

Perhaps now we can discuss your last sentence pertaining to sanity.

[jlynne]

Obama has used this election to create a donor database worth $200 million that he will keep as a personal asset no matter what the outcome of the election is. One Bloomberg article suggests that fellow democrats will be buying their voter information from him for the next decade. I guess he doesn't have to worry about the cost of arugula or the price at the pump when he earned 2x as much as Bill & Hillary in a single election season.