Recently, while doing some research, I stumbled upon some of Bill O'Reilly's writings. I have been taking special notice of what certain writers on both sides of the spectrum had to say before 9/11. As this very innapropriate "Bush vs. Clinton" battle rages on in the 9/11 commission investigation, I took special notice of the famous "non spinning" O'Reilly and his comments pre 9/11. I haven't found much about Bill's thoughts on our foreign policy at the time, but his supossed "non spun" observations on Clinton's last year in office are quite revealing. See if you can spot the parallels!!!
1st, Bill has this to say.
During that time, he turned away from managing the economy and devoted a huge amount of time fund-raising for himself
Sound familiar? Has not George been raising a record amount of re-election funds while the rest of us could use his attention? George began his fundraising and campaigning earlier than any other incumbant at a crisis time in our nation's history. He has used his bully pulpit to collect 2000 dollar a plate contributions while he preaches to the choir instead of spending his energies uniting this country. He is more worried about his own fate and job than anyone else's it seems.
Bill goes on and does touch on one foreign policy thing...funny how his view seems to suggest things couldn't get worse and the view implied that we have no business in mid east affairs. I imagine Bill would take back these words and may have called on Bush to continue trying to bring peace into Isreal instead of the "it's not our problem " attitude...
Mr. Clinton also became obsessed with brokering a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This, of course, led to nothing but more hatred and violence, as we are seeing now on a daily basis.
Of course, we know now that putting the Isreali / Palestinian peace work on the back burner, with other issues like terrorism. And our invasion of Iraq has certainly led to more hatred and violence in the region and the world.
His view on OPEC and energy prices may be different now after watching Bush not even challenge OPEC's latest cuts in production and such...
The bad economic news was compounded by the fact that Mr. Clinton never had an energy policy and allowed the OPEC nations to cut oil production without challenge. Energy prices soared, cutting into corporate profits and gutting the take-home pay of American workers. Mr. Clinton knew there weren't enough oil refineries in the United States but made no attempt to build any. He also knew that America's dependence on foreign oil was at an all-time high but failed to encourage consumers to conserve energy, because that might annoy his SUV-driving soccer mom base.
Finally, MR O'Reilly may want to reconsider his words after the latest republican medicare scam...
The second most at-risk group in America are poor seniors. And what did Mr. Clinton do for them? Drug prices are the highest they've ever been. Some seniors are still traveling to Mexico and Canada to get their prescriptions filled.
Gee Bill, isn't that happening in record numbers today?
Overall, I never consider O'Reilly one of the bad guys. I think he's as opinionated as anyone in political writing but he does at least seek the truth. However, he can't even see his own bias as a bias (the whole "no spin thing") therefore sometimes just goes off track, unwittingly, I suspect. That makes him sometimes more dangerous than the more obvious pundits, but despite that, his quest for truth does merit him kudos.
If O'Reilly would lose the faux-no-spin gimmick in his routine, and just approach things like the right leaning (he's not the most conservative in the pack, but he's no liberal or moderate either) journalist he is, he wouldn't have to work himself into so many corners just to try to appear unbiased.
Oreilly tries to act like he is giving Clinton a fair shot in the beginning, saying...
There are times when I feel guilty for hammering Bill Clinton. He is a man who accomplished a miracle, rising up from humble beginnings in Hope, Ark., to become the most powerful person in the world. And he did it with little help. Mr. Clinton was raised primarily by his flamboyant mother, and although she adored him, she could offer him little in the way of worldly influence. I admire self-made people, and William Jefferson Clinton is all that. But that is where my admiration stops.
We are all suffering right now because of Bill Clinton's presidency, and it has nothing to do with his moral failings. It has everything to do with his policy failings.
O'Reilly tries to approach the article like he really doesn't hate Bill Clinton. Instead of focusing on the Monicagate stuff, he praises Clinton on how he achieved his success. he tries to distance himself from the hate mongers by putting up some pseudo-praise for his charachter. Unfortunately, he is only left with generic, partisan arguements that now just look silly. Fortunately for Bill, not too many people are looking into his archives as they remain hypnotized by his curent spins.
footnotes...all quotes are from Bill O'Reilly column dated May 13, 2001. It can be found at Townhall.com in their archives of journalists under Bill O'Reilly.