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Juan Williams fills in. |
| On The O'Reilly Factor...
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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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| Juan began Friday's program with the Obama campaign's escalating attacks on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and Romney's counter-attacks against the President. Democratic strategist Bernard Whitman and Republican Chip Saltsman reacted to the flying accusations. "This is going to be a nasty, mean campaign," Saltsman predicted. "Every time there's a bit of bad news like the jobs report this week, the Obama campaign punches back on Bain. We're going to see them banging on Bain as many times as they can because they think they have an issue that matters, but I think the Obama campaign may really be overplaying its cards." Whitman contended that the attacks on Romney are both truthful and effective. "In nine separate filings with the SEC Mitt Romney was listed as chairman and CEO and president of Bain through 2002, despite repeatedly saying he left in 1999 in order to avoid responsibilities for some of Bain's disastrous investments. To further that, he's got secret bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands and Bermuda and won't release his tax returns. The American people fundamentally do not know who Mitt Romney is." |
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| Obama supporter Margie Omero and conservative columnist Michelle Fields analyzed why unmarried women are among President Obama's most loyal supporters. "Single women are disproportionately younger," Omero surmised, "and they are less likely to be white than married women. It's a mistake to say food stamps are the reason they're voting for Obama; they're voting for him because Obama has policies that help women." Fields argued that many single women have grown dependent on government handouts. "Democrats promise single women a life where everything is provided to them and they're essentially married to the state. All they have to do in return is provide a vote to Democrats so they can stay in power. That's an extremely appealing message to single women, who are individuals who use government programs. Obama and the Democrats are saying Mitt Romney and the GOP are going to slash these benefits." |
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| There has been a spate of rumors that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the front-runner to be Mitt Romney's running mate. Juan welcomed conservative columnist Stephen Hayes, who said a Romney-Rice ticket is unlikely. "There are a couple of reasons that I'm skeptical," he began. "I don't think he'll pick her because he said in an interview with me that he won't even be considering a pro-choice running mate, and Condoleezza Rice describes herself as moderately pro-choice. And he shouldn't do it because she brings back the Bush administration foreign policy, which is controversial inside conservative circles and in the rest of the country." Juan speculated that the Rice rumors could be a tactic to steer the political debate: "Isn't this just a conversation changer, something to get people away from talking about Bain Capital and all the attacks on Mitt Romney?" |
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| Black voters turned out in droves to support Barack Obama in 2008, but will they be equally enthused this year? Juan posed that question to Bishop Harry Jackson, a social conservative, and Obama loyalist Reverend Conrad Tillard. "African Americans have suffered disproportionately under every administration," Tillard asserted, "and we have unique challenges. The election comes down to a choice between two people, and African Americans like the philosophy of the Obama administration as opposed to a prospective Romney administration, which essentially says the most successful would survive and everyone else would be in great difficulty." Jackson theorized that the black vote in November will not be monolithic. "Three issues are on the table. One is marriage as an institution; 20% of blacks will not vote for President Obama. Also, many are concerned that he is not promoting the 'faith-based social values.' And third, he could have done something specific in the economy and he didn't. Mitt Romney has to be as aggressive as he was at the NAACP." |
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| Former President Bill Clinton has accused Republicans, specifically Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of hoping for a bad economy in order to boost their chances in November. Economist Ben Stein and liberal analyst Simon Rosenberg debated the issue. "Mitch McConnell said his number one goal is to change presidents," Stein said, "and I'm sure he meant that if we change presidents we'll be on the way to a stronger recovery. The idea of saying that Republicans would rather have people be unemployed and win the election is just holier-than-thou partisan nonsense." But Rosenberg portrayed Republicans as obstructionists who oppose every one of the President's initiatives. "Mitch McConnell says he wants to get the economy going by cutting spending and reducing the deficit, but look at what Republicans are actually proposing. They want to increase defense spending, roll back Obamacare, and cut taxes on wealthy people. All of that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars. The Republicans are now the ones promoting the exploding deficit." |
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| After investigating George Zimmerman and conducting scores of interviews, the FBI has concluded that his shooting of Trayvon Martin was not racially motivated. Juan was joined by former prosecutor Joey Jackson and defense attorney Diana Tennis. "This is extremely relevant," Tennis declared. "FBI agents are seen as professional, more objective, and they're credible to juries. Also, the second degree murder charge has to have an element of ill will or spite or anger or hatred. If you don't have this guy profiling Trayvon Martin because he's black, you don't have second degree murder. This is really big for the defense." But Jackson dismissed the FBI report as immaterial. "This is not about whether Zimmerman is a racist, it's about whether his actions that night were appropriate and if he acted with depravity. So I don't think this is a death knell at all for the prosecution and I don't think it's relevant to their establishing this case. This comes back to George Zimmerman's veracity." |
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| Juan closed the show by reprising some of Bill's most sagacious tips from the week gone by. He advised folks who want to lose weight to drink a glass of water with lemon juice just before eating; he counseled people to invoke the "ten-minute rule" before responding to an inflammatory email or text; and he directed viewers to a website called HailMerry.com, which features sweet treats that are actually good for you |
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