I dunno. The way I see it is this:

For "tough guy" blowhards like Bill O'Reilly, the only right answer on the war in Iraq was to support it, because that was the tough thing to do. No matter how wrong it was, Democrats who supported the war demonstrated toughness in the face of pressure from evil lefties (who were of 100% right, even though their position was "weak").

This weird dynamic strangely still shapes public perception of Democratic politicians. Even Democratic primary voters seem to buy it! My theory is that the cornerstone of Hillary Clinton's "toughness" facade is her calculated support for the war. Even though we oppose the war, deep down in our subconscious, we credit HRC some "toughness" for supporting military action so with such mindless hawkishness.

Another theory:  I think O'Reilly is keeping his options open to defect to CNN (Or maybe better Headline News).  He was never gung-ho on Iraq like Hannity -- in fact, he's somewhat of an intra-conservative competitor versus Hannity/Limbaugh.  I could envision him switching tone in a hurry and claiming he was always "populist -- looking out for you -- etc."  

I wonder if he'll ask her about Jeremiah Wright.

Isaac Chotiner-

You write: "Second--and this also has to do with his solipsism--O'Reilly seemed to develop a weird empathy for Senator Clinton."

I'm no fan of either O'Reilly or Hillary, but how could Papa Bear's "empathy" in any way be a product of his "solipsism"? The two words are virtually antithetical to each other.

This is just a some added proof she's got nothin' left to lose (and nothin' ain't worth nothin' but its free).

But O'Reilly will appear to be 'nice' in and interview and his fine-tuned edits will be used whenever he wishes to score bully points. It can begin as soon as the next day & Bill and Dick Morris can have fun with it forever.

It may be easier to ask her troops to fall on their sword if they see their leader leading the final foolish charge. No matter, she's no friend of FauxNews and she knows it will haunt her. I'd should not try and analyze any of these Kamikaze moves.

Any shrinks out there?

Bill O'Reilly is the world's easiest guy to deal with, to have eating out of your hand.  Be very nice to him, yuck it up with him, take him out to dinner, email with him - just pay lost of attention to him and even Hillary is his best friend.

First, Faux News has been desperate to get some time with the Dem candidates, probably to cash in on increased viewership because this is such a hotly contested battle that people are really starting to tune in. Just look at the last debate, talk about a premium for commercial air time.

Second, they were riding Obama particularly hard not that long ago; I think they finally realized that they screwed that pooch when they tried to run that madrassa story, twice, and got debunked both times. Throw in slandering Wright up and down for months, and trying to turn it on Obama every other segment, and its a lost cause. Don't get me started about the derision and Obama-bashing on their morning show on 3/19; one of their anchors got so fed up he actaully walked off the set while they were airing; the best part was the other two continued their denigration the whole time, seemingly oblivious to their own insensitivity. I'm guessing they finally decided to go with the other candidate.

Of course, she'd be more than happy to show up, since she obviously has no qualms about instructing her constituents to vote for McCain if she does not get the nomination; she is trying too hard to knock down Obama, and obviously thinks "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Too bad they'll turn on her in a heartbeat if she gets the nod.

Woody, I saw a snippet already and Bill does indeed ask her about it. Hillary just repeated she would have left the church (as though she would ever have belonged to a black church in the first place is never mentioned) and condemns was Wright said.

Isaac, you need to watch BOR a little more.  

To understand Bill you need to know that he started in the Celebrity Media on a show like Entertainment Tonight.  As a reporter there he saw all the stupidity of the Celebrities the normal folks didn't see.  He really gets upset about the Hypocrisy of the celebrities and how they are unaccountable for anything they do or say.

Bill has more diversity on his show and allows them to make their point.  The may be in complete opposition, but he gives them their time.  And it makes his point for him.

I remember his attacks on Hillary and questions about their marriage.  But his point was more about Hypocrisy than personal attacks.

I think BOR really wants to vote Democratic but just doesn't see any viable candidates.  

Agree with GSpinks. I bet if we check the ratings for the HRC appearance, they'll be dynamite. You've got your normal audience amplified by their Hillary hate. Add in curious dems + Hillary supporters (old white women who watch fox news after a long day of duck hunting), and that's ratings gold!

Maybe O'Reilly secretly fantasizes about HRC using one of those falafel things in the shower.

blackton, I saw that too - I'm a little surprised they didn't spend the entire hour on it, frankly. The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend and all that.

The notion that O'Reilly wants to vote Dem is, uh ... interesting? to say the least. As is the notion that he's some sort of anti-hypocrisy champion. He is one of the nation's leading hypocrites, in fact. And his standard technique for dealing with people who are in "complete opposition" is to condescend, shout over them and tell them to "Shut up!" and have their microphones cut. Now, he won't do that with HRC, of course. But that's typical.

O'Reilly is dishonest and a blowhard, but the absolute worst thing about him is his ever-present, desperate attempt to redraw the political spectrum to fit his worldview. There is no more left-center-right with this guy. Anything at all that's the slightest bit more liberal than his very right-wing POV is "the loony left" or "the far left."

Oh, and a sexual predator. He's a sexual predator, too. Don't want to forget about that.

O'Reilly: "Oh, I think I got 'im. Yes!"

Clinton: "No! I didn't see you."

O'Reilly: "Well, I did. Look here..."

[He holds up his clenched fist to her, then slowly opens the fingers just a bit.]

[Camera rolls in for a close-up. Inside his clenched fingers, a fly is buzzing helplessly.]

Clinton: "Careful--don't lose him! Here..."

[She roots around in her purse a moment before withdrawing a pair of tweezers.]

Clinton: "First let's get him in these."

O'Reilly: "Good idea!"

[He opens his fist a little more. She carefully inserts the tweezers, grabbing the fly around its abdomen, then withdraws it, holding the buzzing creature up for both of them to see.]

O'Reilly: "Alright! Good job! Hold him down there on the desk--I've got another pair."

[He opens his top desk drawer and takes out another pair of tweezers. Clinton is holding the fly against the top of the desk, her hand steady.]

O'Reilly: "Watch this."

[He reaches over, grabs one of the fly's wings and pulls it off.]

Clinton: "Cool!"

O'Reilly: "Wanna try?"

[He hands her the tweezers and, still holding the fly down with her other hand, she deftly plucks off the other wing.]

O'Reilly: "Wow--you look like you've done this before!"

Clinton [smiling slyly]: "I'll never tell. Say, shall we continue on to the legs?"

O'Reilly [winking]: "Ladies first."

the quasi-compliments I see here directed at Bill O'Reilly OF ALL PEOPLE astound me. He's a creep and a buffoon.

"felafel" things? Do you mean "loofah?" Felafal is a middle eastern chickpea-flour pattie.

O'Reilly (FOX) wants the Democrat candidate easiest for McCain to beat.  Shouldn't this be obvious by now?

scire  : Tep knowns the difference between a falafel and a loofah. He was simply quoting O'Reilly's misstatement. Bill O told his producer he want to wash her with a falafel. But, maybe O'Reilly into that. Scrub her down with a falafel, then wash it down it with a glass of her dirty bathwater. . .

A year ago she was boycotting Fox, but Senator Clinton's face-off with Bill O'Reilly on the O'Reilly factor was a shrewd move for a number of reasons: 1. O'Reilly is no softball pitcher. If you can face him, you pretty...

Hillary Clinton is now the darling of the right wing, and this began long before this primary election season. In 2006 the NYTimes reported that the two senators who received the most money from insurance company lobbyists were Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The insurance companies said that what was past was past and that she is on their side now.

Her foreign policy posture has become distinctively neo-conservative. This is not just limited to her voting to authorize sending American troops to invade Iraq, or her vote to target the Republican Guard of Iran military as "terrorists," thug giving Bush-Cheney a free had to provoke a war with Iran anytime they are ready to do so; but she has been belligerent toward Russia, causing them to be more sympathetic with Bush than with the Democrats, and China (calling for an Olympic boycott -- while we love the Dali Lama this does not mean that we should encircle Russia and China with threats, especially in today's global environment -- we need them as allies to deal with other security dangers); and she has called for a nuclear umbrella (that would include NATO forces) not just for Israel (which doesn't need it -- they've got their own nukes) but as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other dynasties in the region; and so on.

Lately she has gained the endorsement of right-wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife, and her campaign has spoken glowingly about the "fair and balanced" coverage of FOX news. She has also implied that John McCain is better prepared to become president than Barack Obama. And she has run a campaign of fear-mongering, 3 AM phone calls, race-baiting, circulating pictures of Obama implying that he is secretly a Muslim, and on and on and on. Her campaign would make Karl Rove and Lee Atwater blush.

Hillary has returned to her Goldwater Republican roots.

I find Bill O'Reilly to be a rather bizarre person.  Particularly his faux self-deprecation which is never believeable for a second.

He and Hillary seemed oddly made for each other.  He asked questions in his mock man of the "folks" style.  And she answered in her phony woman of the people style.

Now we know what real Americans are like.

So why in the world should we vote for her in th General over McCain... with McCain at least the Republicans continue to get the blame if things continue to go wrong.  With Clinton we get Nixon/Bush II redux , terrible judgment, an egotistical narcissist and democrats get the blame.

We need new parties!

How is this such a mystery? Conservatives are terrified of facing Obama because they know he is a much stronger candidate than HRC in the general. Conservatives' love affair with Sen. Clinton (remember Scaife?) has been inversely proportional to Clinton's standing in the polls. Back when she was riding high pre-Iowa, columnists like David Brooks couldn't get enough of Obama.

Conservatives know that the longer the Dem. race goes on, the better it is for McCain. Why this concept escapes Hillary's supporters is anyone's guess.

"Conservatives are terrified of facing Obama because they know he is a much stronger candidate than HRC in the general"

I'm not sure that still holds with conservatives. At least for now. They fear Hillary's "survival skills" or whatever.

But if you ask Republican strategists behind closed doors,  I'm betting they still say that HRC would be easier. They'd have to deal with the Clinton economic brand, but they'd also be dealing with a crippled Democratic party lead by a candidate who has zero ability to rally the base. And they'd be dealing with the devil that they know. Obama may have gapping weaknesses, but he's also a big wild card. He looks down at one moment, and then he pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

There is another interesting interpretation of this.  Given Fox is well recognised as the mouthpiece of the GOP it is taking its lead from them.  Hillary is damaging Obama and should be given a free pass as long as she is doing this for 2 reasons.  1) he is the greater threat to pretty much all the constituents of the GOp base from the religious right to big business 2) Hillary would be an easier candidate to defeat in November as her baggage is easily exploited and McCain is not going to be as reticent about using her past as Obama has been.  Hillary has in effect been co-opted by the right and she can't be entirely unaware of this which demonstrates what is widely known - Hillary will do anything to get elected...

Great line by teplukhin2you ! (Although he/she meant loofah not falafel, but still funny).  I agree with another poster that the conservatives at Fox News are so weary of obama and his perceived extremism that would much prefer Clinton and will do what they can to get her the nomination.  Also she would (probably) be weaker in the general election than he would so McCain can get elected.

I do not like BOR.  He dishonestly pretends to be a middle-of the road independent thinker but in fact is a staunch conservative.  At least Sean Hannity doesn't pretend to be a moderate. Nor is BOR any kind of populist.  He's an ideologue who pretends he isn't.

RE: Hillary will do anything to get elected. This I believe is true. And this is the basis of her strength for those Dems who see Obama's nice-guy image as weak. The fact is, the Reps DO have to go, no matter what. If it takes down and dirty realpolitiks, then so be it.  I'm beginning to think that O cannot survive in our political climate, and this may prove to be true. But, unfortunately, the extrapolation is , for others not myself, that he, therefore, cannot survive on the world stage, an absolutely mistaken idea. Hillary, after all, would not tolerate any action by Iran against Israel and would "attack" them if it happened. We have the ability to "destroy" them she says. This pretty much says it all, plays on the fears of Americans, and puts us in the same spot we were in after 9/11, when even our congressional representatives were mislead into going to war. So, forget about the possibility of diplomacy and negotiation.  We will not enter an age of peace, no matter how tenuous, but rather continue the status quo to our inevitable doom.  Our attention and resources will continue to be spent on military and industrial /corporate interests. The cycle is vicious and suicidal. No doubt, she is one tough cookie, and except for the fact that she is a Democrat, I would not consider voting for her. On the other hand,  she may prove to be more of a Neo-con than I can imagine.

Is anyone asking why Hillary would want to go on his show to begin with? I find it rather incredulous that she's courting conservatives, who have made a living out of attacking her for so long now. I think she knew full well O'Reilly would ask her about Reverend Wright, or about Obama being "out of touch" with rural whites, which allows her to attack Obama again without appearing to have brought the issues up herself. The perception this creates is that she's just answering a question posed to her. But, if she knew the question would come, which she certainly shoud have reasonably expected, it's the same as her bringing it up. It's pretty sad that she has to stoop to this level to attain a desired effect from which she can then try to distance herself.

She's continuing to flail, going to the G.O.P. playbook when it suits her; decrying it when she's on the receiving end.

Look, folks.  It's all about ratings and everybody knows it.  BillOs numbers have been slipping lately, and one thing conservatives admire is a tough fighter.  Wit Hillary you get a double bang.....someone who's ploitics you despise AND a street fighter.

With Obama, there is a high risk that you'll look like the racist bigot you really are.  Hillary doesn't present this problem, even though she's female, because people have been trashing her for so long nobody pays any attention anymore.  For the conservatives (and now the ObamaNation, unfortunately) anything Clinton has been their national bloodsport for 15 years.  It's entertainment like "rassling".

Ratings gold for a wildcatter like Bile O'Really.

"Maybe O'Reilly secretly fantasizes about HRC using one of those falafel things in the shower."

Tep -

Do you know how strange it is to be horrified and laughing at the same time? ;)

Vcentrist-

I'd be curious to know what rodents you think have been lurking in Obama's hat, and that he has subsequently removed.

The first thing I though was "obvious, it's the philly race speech." On closer inspection however, was the impact of that speech all it was touted to be? And it was might touted.... But nevertheless, Wright Wrefuses to go away, in it now looks that the impact that speech had was highly negligible.

Anyways, what are the other rabbits you're thinking of?

The only impact the Philly speech had was on Obama's own base.  It stopped the bleed.  The speech was utterly irrelevant to those who use the Wright brouhaha for their own cover.