Bill O'Reilly: A bad week for the Obama re-election effort
By: BillOReilly.com StaffAugust 17, 2012
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By Bill O'Reilly

As we reported last night, the bad news began with a pro-Obama group putting out an ad saying that Mitt Romney was partially responsible for a woman dying of cancer. It was bull, everybody knows it.

Then the left-wing media began calling Congressman Paul Ryan an extremist because he wants to cut government spending and reform Medicare. Then, Vice President Biden told a group featuring some African-Americans that Mitt Romney and the GOP want to enslave them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY O'DELL, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: When you first heard that Biden had made the comment that they are going to put you all back in chains. When you heard it was phrased that way, what was your reaction?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: What Joe Biden was talking about, again, is an example of a substantive argument. A substantive issue that the American people should be concerned about and his phrasing is a distraction from what is at stake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Oh, an honest assessment by the President and a subtle scolding of Mr. Biden. By the way Nancy O'Dell did a nice job with that on "Entertainment Tonight".

Now, all the chaos is showing up in the polls. A group called Purple Strategy, co-founded by a Republican and a Democrat sampled 600 likely voters in four crucial swing states.

In Ohio, the poll has Romney up by two points, in Virginia the Governor is ahead by three points. In Florida, Romney is up one point over Obama. And in Colorado, the President leads by three points.

To be consistent, I believe polls in August don't really matter. But the entry of Paul Ryan into the race seems to be a plus for Romney, at least in the polls so far. We have just one more week until the presidential race kicks into high gear with the conventions and then the debates in October.

Right now, this much is clear. The economy continues to scare many Americans. Ideology will not be as important as it was for Mr. Obama back in 2008. Finances will dominate the vote. Mitt Romney is holding his own, despite sharp and incessant attacks from the liberal media. And the President looks tired. It's been a long four years for him.

If the election were held tomorrow, I believe Romney would win. When a challenger is as close as the Governor is in the polling, he usually sweeps to victory.

And that's "The Memo."

- You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.

Transcript Date: 
Thu, 08/16/2012
Transcript Show Name: 
O'Reilly Factor