Obama to be on Fox News Sunday...

[mlyonsd]

For anyone interested. I dogged him in the past for being a wuss by not talking to Chris Wallace (a fair interviewer IMO) so I'm posting this to clear my conscience.

[Chief Henry]

Maybe Barry is realizing that he needs to improve his game plan before the Genral Election.

[HonestChieffan]

Its called Panic. The reality of his shrinking base is setting in.

[HolmeZz]

He had every right to ignore Fox News, with Hannity doing nightly segments interviewing random people and asking them about Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers. I swear Sean must go home every night, fire up some of Jeremiah Wright's greatest hits, and just jack it.

[NewPhin]

If Fox wouldn't do stupid things like pickup faux stories about madrassas, I'm sure he would have been on there a long time ago.

[memyselfI]

I bet the folks at Fox are just thrilled at their timing of this fresh off of the Pastor Wright interview.

Let's see if Baarack does as well as Clinton did when she faced her latest nemesis, Keith Olbermann last week.

[memyselfI]

Its called Panic. The reality of his shrinking base is setting in.

Bingo. He's hoping he can reach some bitter folks. Or perhaps he's hoping they'll be clinging at church and they'll miss it. :spock:

[StcChief]

tough to be shamed into it Bark.

[Friendo]

Let's see if Baarack does as well as Clinton did when she faced her latest nemesis, Keith Olbermann last week.[/QUOTE]


she faces her nemesis each morning when she looks in the mirror...an act of courage in itself.

[Pitt Gorilla]

On a related note, is this really Obama's cell phone number?!?

772-257-4501

[jAZ]

I know it's fun to bash Obama for avoiding Fox. To call him afraid, a wuss, or claim that he's now "panic(ing)".

But a little common sense is in order here.

Obama gains nothing from appearing on Fox News during a Democratic Primary. In fact he hurts himself among the "base" who wants Dems to punish Fox News for their garbage.

He's never told anyone at Fox that he'd appear during the primary.

The general election is a different issue entirely, and it would make sense for him go on Fox once he pivots to the General Election mode. And post PA is basically when that would be scheduled to start (despite Hillary's need for reality to be otherwise).

[Lex Luthor]

I didn't see the interview, but I did read the transcript (http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/27/transcript-obama-on-fns/) of it a few minutes ago.

It sounded pretty uneventful.

[jAZ]

I didn't see the interview, but I did read the transcript (http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/27/transcript-obama-on-fns/) of it a few minutes ago.

It sounded pretty uneventful.

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[jAZ]

I know it's fun to bash Obama for avoiding Fox. To call him afraid, a wuss, or claim that he's now "panic(ing)".

But a little common sense is in order here.

Obama gains nothing from appearing on Fox News during [U]a Democratic Primary. [B]In fact he hurts himself among the "base" who wants Dems to punish Fox News for their garbage.
He's never told anyone at Fox that he'd appear during the primary.

The general election is a different issue entirely, and it would make sense for him go on Fox once he pivots to the General Election mode. And post PA is basically when that would be scheduled to start (despite Hillary's need for reality to be otherwise).

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/obama_doesnt_take_fox_on_after.php

Obama Doesn't "Take Fox On," After All
By Greg Sargent - April 27, 2008, 9:30AM
The Fox News Sunday interview is over. And Obama didn't take on Fox at all in any meaningful sense.

On Friday, a senior Obama adviser responded to criticism of his decision to go on Fox with a bunch of tough talk, saying that Obama knew full well that Fox has been at the forefront of spreading "the most specious of rumors" (i.e., lies) about Obama and vowing that he would "take Fox on."

Well, it didn't happen. Obama definitely pushed back hard on some of Chris Wallace's questions, but at no point did he draw attention to Fox's spreading of lies about him or critique the network in a general sense.

Obama had a perfect opening to do this, too. Wallace pressed him repeatedly about Jeremiah Wright and the bogus "flag pin" nonsense -- a perfect set-up for Obama to point out that Fox had obsessed about both these issues to an obscene degree and that Fox had been at the forefront of spreading the Obama-is-a-Muslim lies.

To be clear, Obama wasn't obliged to go after Fox. But a senior adviser said Obama would, as a way of quieting criticism of him. And he didn't.

This will likely further dismay liberal bloggers who had worked very hard to get Dems to boycott Fox as a way of deligitimizing the network and who already criticized Obama for agreeing to appear in the first place.

Obama turned in a perfectly solid performance. He probably succeeded in making a positive impression on many voters he might otherwise not have reached. But the broadcast was clearly a big victory for Fox and Chris Wallace, too.

Indeed, at the very end of the interview, Wallace told Obama to not "be a stranger." Obama's response:

"I won't."

Late Update: Matt Stoller has some strong criticism of Obama's appearance.

Late Late Update: Several of you are arguing that there was something ambiguous about what the senior Obama adviser said on Friday. Here's what the adviser said:

"He is going on their Sunday show to take Fox on..."

Keep in mind that this adviser said this specifically to mollify critics who worried that Obama's decision to appear on Fox would help legitimize the network and hence hurt Dems overall. There's no ambiguity here to speak of: The adviser was telling these critics not to worry, that the reason Obama was going on was to "take Fox on."

And this just didn't happen in any meaningful sense. When Wallace brought up Wright and the flag-pin, for instance, Obama didn't point out that these bogus stories have been pushed relentlessly by Fox or that the network has pushed the Obama-is-a-Muslim lies. Again: Obama was not obliged to take on the network. But either way, the bottom line is that he didn't do it. Partly because of this, the interview -- which was a solid performance by Obama -- was also a victory for Fox.

[Bowser]

On a related note, is this really Obama's cell phone number?!?

772-257-4501

Have you called it yet?

[keg in kc]

My guess is that Obama knows he won 6 weeks ago, and it's finally dawned on him that he has another race to run after Hillary finally realizes that and concedes (like anybody who really had more of an interest in her party or her country than in herself would have done weeks ago...).

[mlyonsd]

I thought Obama did a good job. There's always been something I've liked about him and he actually described it himself. It's his temperament. He's pretty even keel. I think that might be why he's got such a following.

The biggest thing I didn't like about the interview were his plans to raise taxes on the middle class. I think that's just crazy.