Senator Barack Obama agreed to be interviewed by Bill O’Reilly.
Fast-talking, aggressive, cut-and-dry answer seeking, conservative Mr. Bill O’Reilly against the charming, suave, liberal and “nuanced-answer-giving” Obama. How cool is that for an interesting match-up?
The interview is appearing in four parts. Here is the first part that aired on Thurs night. The rest will be aired Mon through Wed of next week.
Obama did very well in this first segment. Firstly, there were no gaffes. Secondly, he appeared calm and collected and withstood the Bill O’Reilly tough talk rather impressively. On the troop surge in Iraq he tactfully defended his stand while admitting that it had worked.
One of his responses that Pakistan was using the funding from the US to prepare for war against India was brilliant for many reasons. Firstly, he is the only visible politician in the US who even pronounces the name “Pakistan” accurately. (most says “Pack” instead of “Pak”). Secondly, its a sign that the man has really done his homework and understands the dynamics of the region far better than others. Most importantly, this is the first time in this entire campaign that “any” of the major candidates have even mentioned India when referring to Pakistan.
The remaining sections should be interesting. Check out Bill’s post interview article. Sounds like the Obama magic has worked on him, at least partially? 🙂
Would Sarah Palin go in for a similar interview with Bill and possibly at one of the other networks?
Pakora Korner 