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Bill vs Barack
September 5th, 2008
Presidential candidate Barack Obama sat down with the notoriously conservative, and most times biased, browbeater Bill O’Reilly. The two played nice even though O’Reilly steadily railed Obama on his stance on the troop surge in Iraq. Obama held his ground admitting that the surge is working better than anticipated but pointed out that the Iraqis haven’t held up their end of the bargain, listed other reasons helping to decrease the violence and talked about unresolved issues regarding Bush’s strategy in Iraq.
Here’s a transcript of the interview:
Bill O’Reilly: Well, first of all, thanks for being a man of your word.
SEN. OBAMA: You bet.
MR. O’REILLY: But I was worried there for a while.
SEN. OBAMA: (Laughs.)
MR. O’REILLY: It’s been nine months since we last met in New Hampshire.
SEN. OBAMA: It took a little while. I’ve had a few things to do in between.
MR. O’REILLY: I understand.
SEN. OBAMA: Yeah. But I appreciate you having me on the show.
MR. O’REILLY: Okay. Let’s start with national security. Do you believe we’re in the middle of a war on terror?
SEN. OBAMA: Absolutely.
MR. O’REILLY: Who is the enemy?
SEN. OBAMA: Al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America, who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the faith of Islam. So we have to go after them.
MR. O’REILLY: Is Iran part of that component?
SEN. OBAMA: Iran is a major threat. Now, I don’t think that there is the same — they are not part of the same network. You know, you got Shi’a and you got Sunni. We gotta have the ability to distinguish between these groups because, for example, the war in Iraq is a good example where I believe the administration lumped together Saddam Hussein, a terrible guy, with al Qaeda which had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein.
MR. O’REILLY: All right. We’ll get to that in a minute.
SEN. OBAMA: And as a consequence, we ended up, I think, misdirecting our resources. So they’re all part of various terrorist networks that we have to shut down and we have to destroy. But they may not all be part and parcel of the same ideology.
MR. O’REILLY: But I still don’t understand — and I’m asking this as an American as well as a journalist — how threatening you feel Iran is. See, look, if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, okay, to me, they’re going to give it to Hezbollah if they can develop the technology. Why not? And so we don’t have anything to do with it. So therefore, the next president of the United States is going to have to make a decision about Iran, whether to stop them militarily. Because I don’t believe — if diplomacy works, fine. But you’ve got to have a plan b. And a lot of people are saying, look, Barack Obama’s not going to attack Iran.
SEN. OBAMA: Here’s where you and I agree. It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon. It would be a game changer, and I’ve said that repeatedly. I’ve also said I would never take a military option off the table.
MR. O’REILLY: But would you prepare for one?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, listen –
MR. O’REILLY: Answer the question, Senator. Anybody can say options. Would you prepare for it?
SEN. OBAMA: Look, it is not appropriate for somebody, who is one of two people who could be the president of the United States, to start tipping their hand in terms of what their plans might be with respect to Iran. It’s sufficient to say I would not take the military option off the table and that I will never hesitate to use our military force in order to protect the homeland and United States interests.
But where I disagree with you is the notion that we’ve exhausted every other resource. Because the fact of the matter is is that for six, seven years during this administration, we weren’t working as closely as we needed to with the Europeans to create –
MR. O’REILLY: Diplomacy might work. You might be able to strangle them economically.
SEN. OBAMA: Sanctions, maybe.
MR. O’REILLY: Maybe. But that’s just all hypothetical.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, everything is hypothetical. But the question is, are we trying to do what we need to do to ratchet up the pressure on them to change their –
MR. O’REILLY: Okay. We’ll assume that you’re going to ratchet everything you can ratchet.
SEN. OBAMA: Right.
MR. O’REILLY: But I’m going to assume that Iran’s going to say, “blank” you, we’re going to do what we want. And I want a president, whether it’s you or McCain, who says, you ain’t doing that.
All right, let’s go to Iraq. I think history will show it’s the wrong battlefield, okay. And I think that you were perspicacious in your original assessment of the battlefield.
SEN. OBAMA: I appreciate that.
MR. O’REILLY: I think you were desperately wrong on the surge. And I think you should admit it to the nation that now we have defeated the terrorists in Iraq. And the al Qaeda came there after we invaded, as you know. Okay, we’ve defeated them. If we didn’t, they would have used it as a staging ground.
We’ve also inhibited Iran from controlling the southern part of Iraq by the surge which you did not support. So why won’t you say, I was right in the beginning, I was wrong about that?
SEN. OBAMA: You know, if you’ve listened to what I’ve said, and I’ll repeat it right here on this show, I think that there’s no doubt that the violence in down. I believe that that is a testimony to the troops that were sent and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated, by the way, including President Bush and the other supporters.
It has gone very well, partly because of the Anbar situation and the Sunni –
MR. O’REILLY: The awakening, right.
SEN. OBAMA: — awakening, partly because the Shi’a –
MR. O’REILLY: But if it were up to you, there wouldn’t have been a surge.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, look –
MR. O’REILLY: No, no, no, no.
SEN. OBAMA: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
MR. O’REILLY: If it were up to you, there wouldn’t have been a surge.
SEN. OBAMA: No, no, no, no. Hold on.
MR. O’REILLY: You and Joe Biden — no surge.
SEN. OBAMA: No. Hold on a second, Bill. If you look at the debate that was taking place, we had gone through five years of mismanagement of this war that I thought was disastrous. And the president wanted to double-down and continue on open-ended policy that did not create the kinds of pressure in the Iraqis to take responsibility and reconcile –
MR. O’REILLY: It worked. Come on.
SEN. OBAMA: Bill, what I’ve said is — I’ve already said it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.
MR. O’REILLY: Right! So why can’t you just say, I was right in the beginning, and I was wrong about the surge?
SEN. OBAMA: Because there is an underlying problem with what we’ve done. We have reduced the violence –
MR. O’REILLY: Yeah?
SEN. OBAMA: — but the Iraqis still haven’t taken a responsibility. And we still don’t have the kind of political reconciliation. We are still spending, Bill, 10 (billion dollars) to $12 billion a month.
MR. O’REILLY: And I hope if you’re president, you can get them to kick in and pay us back.
SEN. OBAMA: They’ve got $79 billion in (New York ?)!
MR. O’REILLY: And I’ll go with you!
SEN. OBAMA: Let’s go!
MR. O’REILLY: We’ll get some of that money back.
SEN. OBAMA: (Laughs.)
MR. O’REILLY: All right. Let’s go to Afghanistan. Look, there’s no winning the Taliban war unless Pakistan cracks down on the guys that are in Pakistan.
SEN. OBAMA: You and I agree completely.
MR. O’REILLY: Okay, yeah, we all know that.
SEN. OBAMA: Right.
MR. O’REILLY: You gave a speech in Denver — good speech, by the way –
SEN. OBAMA: Thank you.
MR. O’REILLY: — but you bloviated about McCain not following him to the cave. You’re not going to invade Pakistan, Senator, if you’re president. You’re not going to send ground troops in there. You know it.
SEN. OBAMA: Here’s the problem. John McCain loves to say, I would follow him to the gates of hell.
MR. O’REILLY: Well, he’s not going to invade, either.
SEN. OBAMA: The point is, what we could have done is –
MR. O’REILLY: Not “could.” Let’s stay now.
SEN. OBAMA: What we can do –
MR. O’REILLY: Yeah.
SEN. OBAMA: — is stay focused on Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Pakistanis.
MR. O’REILLY: Like what?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, for example, we are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. So they’re using the military aid that we use –
MR. O’REILLY: For nothing!
SEN. OBAMA: — to Pakistan, they’re preparing for war against India.
MR. O’REILLY: So you’re going to pull out and let the Islamic fundamentalists take them over?
SEN. OBAMA: No, no, no, no. What we say is, look, we’re going to provide them with additional military support targeted at terrorists, and we’re going to help build their democracy and provide the kinds of funding –
MR. O’REILLY: The things that we’re doing now. Negroponte is over there, and he’s doing that now.
SEN. OBAMA: That’s not what we’ve been doing. We’ve wasted $10 billion with Musharraf without holding him accountable for knocking out those safe havens.
MR. O’REILLY: All right. So you are going to, again, more diplomacy — and we need it, absolutely — try to convince the Pakistani government to take a more aggressive approach and saying, if you don’t, we’re going to pull the funding.
SEN. OBAMA: And what I will do is, if we have bin Laden in our sites –
MR. O’REILLY: Yeah.
SEN. OBAMA: — we target him, and we knock him out.
MR. O’REILLY: But everybody will do that. That will be the biggest win Bush could have if he could do that.
SEN. OBAMA: Of course.
MR. O’REILLY: But you can’t send ground troops in because if all hell breaks loose.
SEN. OBAMA: We can’t have — nobody talked about a full-blown invasion of Pakistan. The simple point that I made was we’ve got to put more pressure on Pakistan to do what they need to do.
(Pause videotaped interview.)
MR. O’REILLY: All right. Again, the rest of the interview will be seen on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, and it is lively.
END.
Bill O’reilly can eat his words!!!
BO is not wishy washy. All of his words are consistent on many fronts. He is a black man that is strong and resolute. We need a president like that….One that talks true and stands strong in adversity and also that fresh beacon of hole we have been long for!!!
Bill O’reilly can eat his words!!!
BO is not wishy washy. All of his words are consistent on many fronts. He is a black man that is strong and resolute. We need a president like that….One that talks true and stands strong in adversity and also that fresh beacon of hope we have been longing for!!!
Bill O. is obviously trying to stage some sort of a platform for Senator McCain to stand on. The world knows who Bill O. is on board with the Pharisees’, oops, I mean the Republican’s choice and his lame attempt to corner Senator Obama was blatant. My question to Bill O. is why not admit that Senator McCain does not have one iota of a plan for the nation? His choice of a running mate is evident of that. The Pharisees, I mean the Republicans will use any ploy they can to try to bamboozle, the nation into thinking that his running mate is qualified to be the second in command. She is different, she is new to the nation and she is sarcastic, but she is not vice presidential material. Her qualification cannot and will not ever be able to compete with the intelligence, experience, and overrall common sense of Senator Biden (domestically or internationally).
As you notice I will not give Bill O nor Senator Mc Cain the satisfaction of calling Sen. McCain’s running mate by name. I think that is the Pharisees’, I mean the Republican’s only strategic tactic. Excuse me readers, I digressed. . . . .back to Mr. Bill O. Bill is not only prejudice, but he is also not very nice.
Get over yourself Bill O. You were not as crafty at snagging Senator Obama as you hoped you hoped to be. I will give the Pharisees credit for being smart enough to keep Sen. McCain’s running mate (and I use that term very loosely) away from intelligent questioning media. She is only being used to her sarcasm as a lead in for the introduction of Sen. McCain to the public. Remember Pharisees, don’t let her answer questions by the media or the public without Sen. McCain or the Pharisees’ handlers.
Barack Obama on Foreign Policy
Meet with Cuban leaders only with agenda of US interests. (Feb 2008)
Cuba: Loosen restrictions now; normalization later. (Feb 2008)
Important to undo the damage of the last seven years. (Feb 2008)
Never negotiate out of fear, and never fear to negotiate. (Jan 2008)
Ok to postpone Pakistani elections, but not indefinitely. (Dec 2007)
Pakistan crisis: secure nukes; continue with elections. (Dec 2007)
President must abide by international human rights treaties. (Dec 2007)
Obama Doctrine: ideology has overridden facts and reality. (Dec 2007)
China is a competitor but not an enemy. (Dec 2007)
Willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il & Hugo Chavez. (Nov 2007)
Wrote 2006 law stabilizing Congo with $52M. (Oct 2007)
No Obama Doctrine; just democracy, security, liberty. (Oct 2007)
Invest in our relationship with Mexico. (Sep 2007)
Strengthen NATO to face 21st-century threats. (Aug 2007)
$50B annually to strengthen weak states at risk of collapse. (Aug 2007)
No “strategic ambiguity” on foreign policy issues. (Aug 2007)
At college, protested for divestment from South Africa. (Aug 2007)
Increased aid to Republic of Congo. (Aug 2007)
Visited largest slum in Africa, to publicize its plight. (Aug 2007)
My critics engineered our biggest foreign policy disaster. (Aug 2007)
China is a competitor, but not an enemy. (Aug 2007)
Meet with enemy leaders; it’s a disgrace that we have not. (Jul 2007)
No-fly zone in Darfur; but pay attention more in Africa. (Jun 2007)
Europe & Japan are allies, but China is a competitor. (Apr 2007)
Palestinian people suffer-but from not recognizing Israel. (Apr 2007)
FactCheck: Palestinian suffering from stalled peace effort. (Apr 2007)
U.S. needs to ameliorate trade relations with China. (Mar 2007)
U.S. funds for humanitarian aid to Darfur. (Mar 2007)
We cannot afford isolationism. (Mar 2007)
Protested South African apartheid while at college. (Feb 2007)
Focus on corruption to improve African development. (Oct 2006)
Supports Israel’s self-defense; but distrusted by Israelis. (Oct 2006)
Visited Africa in 2006; encouraged HIV testing & research. (Oct 2006)
Never has US had so much power & so little influence to lead. (Jul 2004)
US policy should promote democracy and human rights. (Jul 2004)
Sponsored aid bill to avert humanitarian crisis in Congo. (Dec 2005)
Urge Venezuela to re-open dissident radio & TV stations. (May 2007)
Let Ukraine & Georgia enter NATO. (Jan 2008)
Condemn violence by Chinese government in Tibet. (Apr 2008)
Sanction Mugabe until Zimbabwe transitions to democracy. (Apr 2008)
THANK YOU SADIE, you are calling it, the way it truly is, sarah palin, but i have chose to call her JEZEBEL, SARAH PALIN has a spirit of ENTICEMENT, that’s why she has become so popular. And once again, some WHITE’S are falling PREY TO THE PHARISEE’S and that’s a shame, but I say “NOT SO” now this mean’s I will have to direct my prayer, toward’s that deceptive SPIRIT, that is trying to CHANGE the direction of this election. We have to pray that poor white’s will not lose focus, and fall into this TRAP. because jonh McCAIN and SARAH PALIN are spreading lie’s to GOD’S PEOPLE, they could CARE less about GOD’S PEOPLE, I WATCHED THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, and the face’s I saw, could less about POOR WHITE’S, BLACK’S, HISPANIC’S AND ALL THE OTHER MINORITY RACE’S.
A good president makes good choices bcause he cares about his people and his country.
u don’t just make a choice to let people see that u can make bold choices by by choosing the most unexperiance person to b ur vp.
U can now see that mccain doesn’t do his homework well, if u ask me he doesn’t even know what is best for the country, although he has serve the country for many years and was a brave soldiere, i respect that.
But that doesn’t say that u can rule the country out of ur war experiance and keep on fighting the war even if u know that is usless.
Let our soldiers out of Iraq, war was no an option in Iraq.
The goal was getting Saddam tha happend, what are our soldiers doing in the Deathrow. lets go to afganistan there is where the war of honor to b found.
I don’t meen to say that there nver have been war of honor, but this is our generation and this is how we roll, diplomacy is needed more then guns and bombs, is not that we have to be weak ,no we can b ready foer war but no unnessesary war.
We must do the 2 step for Obama
1. Register to vote (take someone with you)
2. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!
Register to vote:
Call 1-866-MY-VOTE-1
Please vote…it is our right. I’m not voting for Obama because he’s Black. I’m voting for him because he appears to be a fair man that wants equal rights for all. He is concerned for the middle class. Me. I’m tired of paying high ass taxes for folks who do nothing. I’m tired of the rich getting all the breaks. Lets be fair. I want free halth care. Two of my children ages 24 and 29 have no health care…that is a shame. Bill O”Reilly is a angry White man that don’t want to see any Black person obtain more than what he has. O’Reilly is trash,,,poor white trash who is where he is because he’s White. He hates rappers and why would this guy complain about Snoop Dogg hosting this big party in San Francisco. Snoop knows how to conduct himself in public. I missed ths show…I can’t stand that guy but I know he hates Obama. I’m sure Obama did a good job. He’s not one to go off or act a fool…he’s a man with dignity, Pride. Young people encorage your friends and family. Go to the post office get a apllication to register, You can mail in ballot in after you vote…just vote.
Between his ancient war stories and her endless personal family drama…what do they have to offer….besides insults about Barack Obama…what will they do about high gas, high groceries, healthcare, mortgages, foreign policy, etc… They tried to take the focus off the real issues during that boring RNC but smart voters saw right thru it. DON’T LET FEAR OF CHANGE KEEP YOU IN THE COMFORT OF THE SAME OLE MESS!!
VOTE OBAMA/BIDEN 08!!!
That’s why I like Obama, even though I’m republican. He stands his ground and he will not back down from a confrontation. He is a formidable debater/candidate. They keep talking about this community organizer, but how many community organizers can go up against the big boys and win the nomination for the next President of the United States! The people of the united states voted him in, Palin was promoted in. She sounds like an elitist, looking down her nose at a community organizer. Is not the United States a community of regular people with common dreams and goals for them and their families?!!! If you think that is bad, you should have seen the interview with Michelle Obama where that racist reporter asked her “where did you get the communication skills” and then went on to migrate the conversation to prove to him how she can talk like that!!! I was so pissed I sent an email to MSNBC for that crap.
WHO THE HELL IS BILL O’REILLY ANWAYS? I WATCH TV NEWS AND I HAVEN’T HEARD TO MUCH ABOUT HIM BUT THE WAY HE TRIED TO TWIST OBAMA’S WORDS AROUND REALLY PISSED ME OFF. WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? NOBODY’S PERFECT! I LOVE OBAMA AND LIKE HE SAYS IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE~! I DON’T REALLY CARE WHAT ANYONE THINKS OF OBAMA TO EACH IT’S OWN I PERSONALLY THINK OBAMA WILL MAKE A GREAT PRESIDENT HE HAS A GAME PLAN AND HE’S READY TO PUT IN FULL FORCE AND HE HAS A GREAT SUPPORTIVE WIFE WHO STANDS BY HIM AND THEY AREN’T FULL OF DRAMA AND SCANDALS! GO OBAMA! OBAMA 08 BABY! I’M VOTING FOR YOU IN NOVEMBER!
Well i had to put my input, i find this interviewer was very bias and racist. It is ver clear to me that he dont like black and i agree with that person that said he was setting a good stage for mccain. well i believe is god appointed chosen one for this this time and season, and like it or not , bible must fulfil. Its not even about black or white , it about who can do the job and put back america on it fooot again. we all need to come together and make obama the next president of america n if we want change.mc cain is a vote for bush and bush is all aboout war war war , he dont care about the american people.
Why isn’t anyone asking Sen. Obama about taking care of his own family? What about his brother in Kenya that lives on a dollar a day?
Senator Obama is and has definity proved to be a solid, intellectual and caring
canidate. Throughout Senator’s Obama journey to the White house, Obama ha proven as a man in touch with all people. From the beginning of his law career, Senator Obama opted not to become a elicist coperate attorney but elected a positon as a civil rights attorney “fighting for the justices of all people who otherwise cannot fight for themselves.
Additionally to comment on “Bill O’Reilly, he just apart of the media propaganda, he views can comments are meaningless.
The so called Obama’s relative does not live on a dollar a day. I am from Kenya, and this guy lives a very comfortable life, and he is attending college. Western ‘journalists” twisted his words to make Obama look bad. How are you supposed to track down everyone seed that your father sowed? This is very cheap politics. By the way, be aware of wolves in sheep’s clothing trying to sow seeds of discord in some of the blogs.
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