Moore did ok but he failed to really hammer O'Reilly like he could have. He should have had some better answers to O'Reilly's right-wing talking points.
When O'Reilly said Bush did not lie about WMD's Moore should have said hey Bill what happened to the buck stops here. He should have pointed out that during the 8 years Clinton was President O'Reilly blamed every problem in the country on Clinton. Even things President Clinton had no control over. No matter what it was O'Reilly would say but Clinton is the President so he is at fault. From the day the factor went on the air O'Reilly blamed every problem in America on Clinton, he basically said the buck stops here on every issue.
But now O'Reilly refuses to blame anything on Bush, and suddenly the buck stops here does not apply. Suddenly the Bush stops everywhere but at the Presidents desk. Moore should have pointed out that hypocricy and that double standard by O'Reilly. But to be honest I am not sure Moore even knew that O'Reilly had said all that when Clinton was president. I know this crap because I have watched his right-wing ass for about 6 or 7 years now.
I would think if Moore knew that, he would have used it. How come Moore did not mention the OSP or the stovepipe article by Seymour Hersh. Are you telling me Bush did not know about the OSP, if he did not know then Cheney and Wolowitz should be put in jail for starting an intelligence service without Congressional approval or the approval of the President.
When O'Reilly pulled out the Bush did not lie BS Moore should have been better prepared. There are numerous web sites that have documented Bush lies. Moore should have printed out some of them and help up papers with the lies on them and said look Bill I have it in black and white right here. That's what O'Reilly does all the time, Moore should have used O'Reilly's own tactics on him.
I would have had pages of Bush lies printed out and ready to spring on O'Reilly as soon as he pulled his Bush has never lied BS. And yet all Moore could say was Bush said there were WMD's, then O'Reilly countered that by saying Bush was just going by the bad intelligence.
I think O'Reilly won that battle, because Moore failed to point out the Bush lies. Just a simple google search on "Bush Lies" will get you 1,970,000 matches. If Bush has never lied how come there are 1,970,000 matches.
Let me list some Bush Lies:
Bush said he would take the Iraq war vote to the UN and let the chips fall where they may. HE LIED, Bush did not take the vote to the UN because he knew it would never pass. Then he invaded Iraq without the approval of the UN. I would say that was a lie, but not in the world of O'Reilly, and Moore never called O'Reilly on it.
In February of 2003 Bush said he has not yet decided whether to go to war. HE LIED, In meetings (the day before Bush said that) with senior officials in Moscow, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton told the Russian government that "we're going ahead," whether the council agrees or not, a senior administration official said...."You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said U.S. officials told him. 'That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not.'
Bush cited an IAEA report in 2002 saying the Iraqis were "six months away from developing a weapon." HE LIED, there was no such report in 2002, it was an 11 year old IAEA report from 1991, before the Gulf War.
And in fact, the white house even later admitted it was an 11 year old report. The only problem is they called it a mistake, yeah right, he accidently quoted an 11 year old report about WMD's in Iraq.
If you believe Bush did not know that was an 11 year old report I have a bridge to sell you.
Here is a web site with 30 lies by Bush and or his administration.
Top 30 Bush - Iraq Lies
http://www.politicalstrategy.org/2003_03_10_weblog_archive.htmHow come Michael Moore did not have some of these lies printed out for use when O'Reilly pulled his Bush has never lied BS ?
Bush lied about the weapons inspectors.
Bush made these remarks to reporters on 7-14-03 with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his side, in response to a question from the Washington Post.
As quoted on the White House Web site, Bush said:
"The fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power..."
The Truth:
Everyone in the world knows that Saddam Hussein allowed a fully-equipped team of UN inspectors to comb every inch of his country - including previously off-limits Presidential palaces - for four full months."
Bush also knew it because he specifically urged the inspectors to leave Iraq when he issued his 48-hour ultimatum to Iraq on March 17, 2003."
There are many other Bush lies not related to Iraq, Bush lied about knowing Ken Lay, he said he barely knew him, even though he was his #1 financial contributor and he let Bush use Enron jets during his 2000 campaign. In my world that's a lie, not in the world of O'Reilly though.
I could fill a phone book with Bush lies, yet Michael Moore never cited any of them. The best he could do was this.
M: Oh, he lied to the nation, Bill, I can’t think of a worse thing to do for a president to lie to a country to take them to war, I mean, I don’t know a worse –
O: It wasn’t a lie
M: He did not tell the truth, what do you call that?
O: I call that bad information, acting on bad information – not a lie
M: A seven year old can get away with that –
O: Alright, your turn to ask me a question—
M: ‘Mom and Dad it was just bad information’—
O: I’m not going to get you to admit it wasn’t a lie, go ahead
M: It was a lie, and now, which leads us to my question
Moore said a little more than that but he never cited one actual lie by Bush. I could come up with at least 10 documented lies by Bush, and have it in 15 minutes. Yet Moore did not do it, so I was disappointed in his interview with O'Reilly. He knew what O'Reilly was going to ask him, everyone did, yet he was not prepared.
I love Michael Moore, but I give him a C+ on this one. Moore got some good points in, but he could have crushed O'Reilly with documented Bush lies and he failed to do it.