Hannity challenges Obama to co-host his Fox show
In a recent interview with Glamour, Barack Obama objected to the highly negative treatment of his wife Michelle by the "conservative press."
"Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way...and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans," Obama stated. "If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in day out, that'll drive up your negatives."
Fox's Sean Hannity was aggrieved at being singled out in this way. "Senator Barack Obama is defending his wife by attacking little old me," he complained. "So let's get this straight, Senator. Your wife campaigns for you, does public speeches, and says things like she's 'finally proud of her country' and America's a downright mean country in 2008 -- and she should be immune from criticism?"
Hannity also observed with some pleasure that Obama had stated, "Rarely do these folks ever have the guts to say it to your face."
"Senator Obama is welcome on this program," Hannity said in challenge to Obama. "I'll let him co-host my radio show for three hours. ... I'll let him fill in for [my co-host] Alan [Colmes] one night for the full hour. ... I'll even throw in Hannity's America for an hour. I am not ashamed of anything I've ever said."
Hannity turned to Fox News contributor Karl Rove for additional comment, asking, "Karl, how should I interpret this?"
"I have a certain sympathy for where Senator Obama's coming from," Rove began. "But if spouses get involved in the process and begin to make explicit political statements ... they can't say 'I'm a civilian.'"
Rove cited a New Yorker article in which Michelle Obama is quoted as declaring in a stump speech, "Our country's just downright mean. We're guided by fear. We're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. We've become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day."
"If you decide to become a political actor," tut-tutted Rove, "then the things that you say and you do become subjects of public scrutiny and comment. ... The best answer for her if he doesn't want her to be commented on is to have her make comments that are not controversial."
In casting Michelle Obama's remarks as "controversial," Rove did not mention that the same article goes on to say of them, "Yet, for a potential revolutionary, Michelle Obama is deeply conventional. She exudes a nostalgia, invoking the innocence and order of the past, as much as her husband beckons to a liberating future. Listening to her speeches, with their longing for a lost, spit-shine world, one could sometimes mistake her, were it not for the emphasis on social justice, for a law-and-order Republican."
As Rove continued to argue that Michelle Obama "ought to not say additional things that are of that controversial nature, and [Barack Obama] ought not to continue to pour gasoline on the fire," co-host Alan Colmes jumped to object that "a lot of people see a guy standing up for his wife."
Rove, however, was not to be swayed. "She could say things in a way that's positive and optimistic," he concluded.
Partial transcript:
HANNITY: He also said the problem in this same article is rarely do these folks ever have the guts to say it to your face. Senator Obama is welcome on this program. I'll give him -- I'll let him co-host my radio show for three hours, he can be here, I'll let him fill in for Alan one night.
COLMES: You get the say in that?
HANNIITY: I get the say. I'll even throw in "Hannity's America" for an hour. I am not ashamed of anything I've ever said. I think we've asked some very tough questions, but in is the most important job in this world, and it seems to me, and maybe this is unsolicited advice to Senator Obama, and that is Senator Obama, you singled me out, and I want to give you advice. It seems to me if you want to be taken seriously, he needs to be acting like a statesman. He needs to be acting presidential.
This video is from Fox's Hannity & Colmes, broadcast July 17, 2008.
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