Netroots Nostradamuses
The Big Interview is now history and the reviews are in: a "friendly exchange" that Sen Obama handled "deftly" and artfully. Chris Wallace was "civil" and the post-game analysis "surprisingly moderate".
How can this be? Just yesterday the Fox haters and blue blog prognosticators were convinced that the sky was falling. Just stepping into the evil lair of Fox News would be the greatest political catastrophe since Nixon refused make-up. For your reading enjoyment, some of our favorite bits of problematic prescience:
- Obama should better be ready for the gotchas coming a mile a minute. He better have quick sound bite answers, becuase [sic] you know Chris Wallace is going to ask another gotcha question before he lets Obama answer the last gotcha question. [Kos]
- Fox is interested in only one thing: taking down Obama, and they will literally stoop to anything to do it. Obama is nuts if he thinks he's going to get fair or impartial questions. All Fox needs is one line, one questionable syllable, and they will be talking about it and looping it for weeks. [TPM]
- FOX will distort this segment just like any other segment in reference to Obama. Murdough met with Bill Clinton prior to the outlandish "clips" aired about Rev. Wright. FOX will clip this interview as well. [TPM]
- This is nothing but a trap. [NewsCorpse]
- It smacks of capitulation and that's how they will spin it. [Kos]
- Obama's going to answer the bully. [Kos]
- It will be a hit job. They’ll pull out some crap he did in the 4th grade or something. [C&L]
- Fox has complete control over what viewers will see, and they'll edit it to make it into hit job on Obama regardless of what he says.... It makes no sense to expect that a Republican propaganda outlet will somehow produce something that helps Obama. [TPM]
- No matter what he says or does, there will be negative spin from it. [Kos]
- It's [sic] viewers will become even more convinced that Fox is fair and balanced, and come the GE when Fox is running the 10-second clip of Rev. Write [sic] nonstop, Americans, on a whole, will get dumber. That's the big picture, net consequence of this appearance by Obama on Fox -- that it's going further [sic] dumb down America. [Kos]
- This is gonna make the ABC debate look like a tea party. [C&L]
- He'll probably rip Wallace a new one and make him look stupid. [Kos]
- His responses will be cut up and edited and used against him in a million ways. [HuffPo]
- He goes on fox, makes a stand against the [expletive deleted] foxnews, looks like a democratic fighter, and doesn't have to attack hillary to do so. [TPM]
- Prepare to be sand-bagged. [C&L]
- I hope by, "take Fox on," they mean, "beat Chris Wallace around the head and neck with a sock full of ball bearings," but that's probably too much to hope for. [TPM]
- So wqho [sic] wants to bet that Wallace's first question(s) will be about why Obama hasn't appeared on Fox in so long? [TAP]
- He’s walking into a trap and Wallace will try to sandbag him. [C&L]
- The "questions" will be long narrative "opening statements" such as: "Sen. Obama, you have courted domestic terrorists like William Ayers for their political support. Ayers, of course, bombed American government builings, never repented, and on 9/11 said that the bombings did not go far enough. When questioned about Ayers in the last debate, you were very defensive and did not, in the eyes of many, renounce Ayers. In fact, you appeared to defend him by suggesting he was just a benign "English professor." Senator, do you regret your association with this domestic terrorist?" By asking this kind of loaded question, the answer is almost irrelevant. [TPM]
- Viewers will see it only after Fox gets done editing it into a smear job. [TPM]
- I'm sure Karl Rove at Fox News, will be burning up the Blackberry with zingers to Chris Wallace to get Barack Obama tripped up and agitated so as to get a sound bite to play over and over. [TPM]
- My guess, they go over the top on Rev Wright, and Obama has an answer ready. [TAP]
- Fox will spend the entire time focusing on the "manufactured issues" of the campaign — flag pins, "bitter"-gate, Weathermen, etc. Obama's going to get punched. [MoJo]
