Hillary proves once again, she's a fighter. She went toe-to-toe with Bill O'Reilly, got her shots in, never was intimidated, appeared comfortable, alert, and confident. She sometimes added a twist of humor (Faux News slogan, "fair and balanced").
The first half of the interview aired last night. Part two broadcasts tonight. The videos of Hillary's interview below are broken into two parts.
The first video includes Rev. Wright, her votes against nuclear energy and drilling ANWR, gas prices, the energy crisis and who's to blame, using the WTO to muscle OPEC, her universal health care plan and accountability, how we already subsidize the uninsured with a hidden tax in current health care plans, working to reduce those costs, and electing a president who's a fighter.
The second video covers taxes, an increase of up to 39% on $250,000+ incomes and a tax cut for the middle class... no commitment to increasing payroll taxes or lifting the cap... On "income redistribution" that conservatives dislike, which Bill-O called socialism, Hillary hit back with Teddy Roosevelt: was he a socialist? She addressed the false premise that taxes in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s were lower (than today?!). JFK reduced the tax on the wealthiest Americans from 90% to 70%... Hello! Hillary demonstrated that she is the debatemeister, ready with facts, besting Bill-O by never allowing him to get away with injecting propaganda.
When the discussion turned to Obama and how Hillary is perceived as "more polarizing" than Barack, O'Reilly said, "He seems like a nicer guy." Hillary returned fire good-naturedly. She won NY with 67% of the vote despite her "divisive" rep and "the reason is" she "reached across party lines." Clinton said:
I'm the one with the record of bipartisanship. . . .I happen to think if you want to take on the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the oil companies, you've got to be tough. And we've got to have a president who's a fighter again. Now will that create, you know, some folks who are a little upset? Yes. But if we don't get back to fighting for the American people, we're not going to recognize our country.
When Bill-O asked if Hillary had been surprised by "fairer" treatment from Fox News than from NBC or other news orgs, she quipped, "I wouldn't expect anything less than a fair and balanced coverage of my campaign." Ha!
Via Taylor Marsh.
UPDATE: Part II, the second evening's broadcast of the Clinton interview by O'Reilly is here.
|