Hillary Clinton made a guest appearance on Fox News program The O'Reilly Factor last night, with, some say, the express purpose of denouncing Barack Obama's ex-pastor, Reverend Wright. "Do you believe this Reverend Wright guy?" Bill O’Reilly asked. "I'm going to leave it up to the voters to decide," Clinton said.
As Steve Kornacki points out, Wright's not on the ballot, but, as he sees it, Clinton's message is still clear, "The purpose of Clinton’s visit wasn’t to win over O’Reilly on health care or taxes or energy policy. Her goal is merely to make sure that [the] O’Reilly audience – which doesn’t have a Republican primary to vote in these days – feels like she’s like them in a way that Obama isn’t."
Doug Heye of the National Review Online found Clinton's decision to appear on the show telling, but remains unconvinced that she can do anything more than prolong an inevitable defeat. "Her performance last night was not a slam dunk. But her very appearance on The O’Reilly Factor demonstrates her willingness to go for the steal and head for the basket. Even if it only takes the game into overtime," Heye said.
The New Republic points out that this was a political move for O'Reilly as well as Clinton. The magazine's blog charges that the conservative talk show host has changed his view of Clinton since he mocked her 2000 run for senate, perhaps even developing empathy for her. O'Reilly has become "a target of ridicule in the liberal media, and he has begun to develop a bit of a persecution complex ... So, rather than mocking her, he would instead rant about the ways in which she was picked on by the media," The New Republic's Michelle Cottie, Christopher Orr, Jason Zengerle, and staff write.
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