The Huffington Post is once again more than willing to make Governor Palin look bad--even if that means they have to spin things to get that job done.
On "Good Morning America" today, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, George Stephanopoulos brought up Governor Jeb Bush's comments about Governor Palin's readiness for a 2012 presidential run. Bush, whose own name has been thrown around as a potential candidate, said a few days ago:
"My personal belief is that for Governor Palin to be a successful candidate for higher office, she needs to take this charisma she has and also add to it some depth of understanding of the complexity of life that we're living in today. If she had the combination of that, she would be a formidable candidate."
Complexity of life? What does that mean? Has she not been leading discussions on health care, the economy, national security, energy independence? What simplistic issues does he think the governor has been dealing with lately: cookie baking? basket weaving?
Jeb Bush went on to say he doesn't know what Governor Palin's deal is. Well, where has he been then? Her deal is the same deal millions of Americans share. Her deal is what the Tea Party movement has been meeting about, hard-working Americans are concerned about, and a plethora of organizations are scrapping to schedule her to come and talk about. What's not to get? What part of common sense conservatism is causing Jeb Bush trouble? What's his deal?
Now, the Huff Po is consistent, if nothing else. One can always count on them to advance their purposes by any means necessary, so today they half-reported O'Reilly's response to Stephanopoulos's question about Bush's statement.
They wrote:
As for frequent "O'Reilly Factor" guest Sarah Palin, O'Reilly says she absolutely wants to run but has to weigh whether she wants to put her family through the process. And, he added, she needs to study up.
"Sarah Palin needs to go to college," O'Reilly said. "Political college, world affairs college, and she is. She's hired a bunch of advisers and they're giving her a whole bunch of tracks to learn, because it is a sophisticated deal."
O'Reilly, who has interviewed Governor Palin on a few occasions and has spoken well of her afterwards--he who doesn't ask softball questions, as he's wont to boast--should have done a better job dealing with Governor Bush's baseless comment. For reasons I cannot fathom, he didn't speak up about the substantive issues he and she have engaged in, didn't call Bush out for his comment--void of anything resembling fact--and didn't ask, "Pinhead?"
Nonetheless, there was more to the answer he gave than the Huff Po would have you know.
NewsBusters reported what the Huff Po conveniently left out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is she ready?
O'REILLY But, Bush is right, the Governor's right in the sense that Sarah Palin needs to go to college, political college, world affairs college. And she is. She's hired a bunch of advisers. And they're giving her a whole bunch of tracts to learn. Because, it is a sophisticated deal. But, give me a break. Nancy Pelosi's a genius? She's the Speaker of the House. She's afraid to come on my program, Stephanopoulos. If she were sitting where you are sitting, she'd be shaking. She can't answer the questions.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I don't know about that.
O'REILLY: She can't answer the questions. All right? So, yeah, Sarah Palin needs a little bit more seasoning. But, don't tell me Harry Reid and Boehner and Pelosi are geniuses. They're not. The country's in a mess. If they were geniuses, we'd be better off.
As I said, O'Reilly did not go into detail regarding the governor's grasp of issues as he has done in the past, perhaps because he wanted to go in a different direction, to make a separate point, which he did. O'Reilly's point was if one wants to talk about someone who's lacking understanding, they need not look any further than the Speaker of the House. It is she, he asserts, who can't answer the questions, so much so that she wouldn't dare take the challenge of being interviewed on "The Factor."
Governor Palin, on the contrary, has no problems sitting down with him and answering whatever question he throws her way because she does know the issues. And while there will be those in the "Vicious press," as O'Reilly called them, who will read into his comment that the governor needs more "seasoning," his point was this: they all need a little more, including Reid and Boehner. But Speaker Pelosi needs a lot more than seasoning, and Governor Palin could definitely take her to school.
Update: Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor this evening:
(Video H/T Sheya)
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