They Don't Call TV the Boob Tube for Nothing

The other night on the O’Reilly Factor Bill asked me what I thought were some of President Obama’s weak points.  I mentioned the crummy economy, of course, but then I said there was another issue, an intangible, that I would describe in a word as “disappointment.”

A lot of Americans who voted for Barack Obama, I said, are disappointed today because he told us he would change the tone in Washington and practice a new kind of politics.  It didn’t turn out that way, I said.

Instead of being a new pol, I continued, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old style Chicago politician.  The only thing new about him, I said, was his race – immediately explaining that all the other U.S. presidents who came before him were white.

Pretty simple, right?  Who could argue with that?  Well, Bill H can for one.  This is what he wrote to me:

Mr. Goldberg

Re: Your comments on Bill O"Reilly's show that the "new" thing about Obama is his "race".

What the hell does that have to do with him being president and what he's done thus far?

Sir, just come out and say you can't stand that there is a BLACK MAN in the white house.

Afterall, that's just what you and your obviously RACIST pals really feel.

Most Sincerely, Bill H

Then there was the piece on opednews.com by someone called John Sanchez, Jr who wrote that, “Bernard Goldberg, former journalist and Fox News denizen puked out the filthy racist lie that Barack Obama was elected because he was black, rather than in spite of it.”

Thanks to people like Bill H and John Sanchez the word racist has been turned to meaningless mush.  Ironic, isn’t it, that liberals – the ones who led the fight for civil rights in this country – have taken a powerful word and by promiscuously abusing it, rendered it virtually meaningless.  Congratulations, chuckleheads.

Back to The Factor …

Looking into the camera, I also said, Please, my conservative friends, don’t shoot your humble messenger, but as far as a lot of independent voters are concerned Barack Obama is ... likeable.

They may not like his politics, I said, but they like him.  They like his million- dollar smile, the way he carries himself, the way he walks and the way he talks.

For that, I got a couple of emails saying I didn’t know what I was talking about because, “I’m an independent and I detest Obama.”

I used the word "chuckleheads" before in this column, right?

This is like the liberal woman from the New Yorker magazine who in 1972 famously said, “I don’t understand how Nixon won.  I don’t know anybody who voted for him.”

Nixon carried 49 states that year to George McGovern’s one.

In 2008, Barack Obama won a majority of the independent vote -- though obviously not the Einsteins who wrote to me.

You know why they call TV the "Boob Tube"?  Because of all the boobs watching it.

Of course, I don't mean YOU.

Here's the video... Thoughts?