Odd couple: Barack Obama to visit Bill O'Reilly
THIS sounds like must-see TV.
Ben Smith of Politico.com reports that Barack Obama has agreed to sit down with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News on Thursday evening -- the same night John McCain delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
The two events won't go head-to-head, of course. But Obama's appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" will give him a chance to make his case to an audience that presumably will also watch McCain en masse. It's hard to imagine many of O'Reilly's viewers will be swayed by Obama, but his campaign obviously figures it's worth the effort to try to pick up a few strays.
The NFL season also opens Thursday at 7 p.m. EDT (4 p.m. PDT) with a game between the defending Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, and one of their longstanding rivals, the Washington Redskins. But even committed football fans might be tempted to check out the action on the O'Reilly set, especially if the matchup they're watching isn't producing fireworks.
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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This should be amusing. The timing impeccable. Should be a very interesting interview. As much as I sometimes do not like O'Rielly, the interviews can be insightful. It will be interesting to see which party gets the bounce of this interview.
Obama 1020555 McCain 423245 at
Http://www.bop-o-rama.com
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http://www.gallup.com/tag/Gallup%2bDaily.aspx
Posted by: mgultch | September 03, 2008 at 06:32 AM
Shame on the LA Times. You spens the week fawning and slaivating over the DNC, showcasing and spotlighting the Dems as if it was a rock concert. Now, we see "serious" coverage (pronounced gossip, innuendo and backbiting) of the RNC. Frederick and Malcolm are nothing but partisan hacks. What a black eye in fairness and balanced reporting. Looking forward to the day when this biased rag goes down in flames.
Posted by: WhereWasScrutinyOnDemocrats | September 03, 2008 at 06:50 AM
C'mon Bill, show America what this poser is all about!
Posted by: Jake | September 03, 2008 at 07:14 AM