GOP Comes Out Guns Blazing

The Republican convention is underway, and we are right in the middle of it.

The GOP, the Grand Old Party (search), is modeling its convention after FDR's Democratic gathering in 1944. The Republicans are bent on selling President Bush as an effective wartime leader, just the way FDR (search) was packaged.

This evening, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani will hit the War on Terror (search) theme hard, portraying Mr. Bush as the best man to keep Americans safe.

McCain and Giuliani are a powerful one-two punch. Both are moderates, not tied in with the far right. And both are well respected among most Americans.

Over in the opposing camp, things are not going so well. Senator Kerry's poll numbers are dropping a bit. And he's lost momentum because of the swift boat business.

The people protesting the convention are actually helping President Bush. We'll explain that a bit later on. And the left-leaning press is having a hard time this week fueling anti-Bush feeling.

The New York Times, for example, kicked off the convention, demanding that the Electoral College be thrown out. The Times, which has become the chief proponent of a new secular progressive America, wants a straight popular vote.

Of course, The Times knows that just nine states hold half the population, thus a politician could ignore 41 states and actually win the election, promising massive entitlements for the few.

But there is no way the progressives will ever win in this country as long as traditional folks in the smaller states have some power. So that's what The New York Times is up to.

By the way, in yet another example of staggering dishonesty, The New York Times has signed a far left bomb thrower to review three new anti-Bush books. In the body of that review, the writer Jacob Wiseberg actually said that Howard Stern has eclipsed Rush Limbaugh on the radio, another blatant falsehood, courtesy of The New York Times.

Limbaugh has twice the radio audience that Stern does. Once again, The New York Times has shamed itself. It does it almost every week.

Now on the political front, Senator Hillary Clinton is front and center in countering the Republican point of view. Factor producer Andrea Mackris caught up with her here at Madison Square Garden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA MACKRIS, PRODUCER: I'm with Fox News. How are you?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Oh, how are you, Andrea?

MACKRIS: Good, it's a privilege to meet you.

CLINTON: Thank you.

MACKRIS: I just want to ask you a quick question. I understand that you're here on the truth squad?

CLINTON: Well, I'm here to do what I've been doing every day and what I'm going to continue to do every day through the election, which is to elect John Kerry and John Edwards. And I think it's important that the facts and the evidence be presented to the American people. Because if that's done, I have no doubt we're going to have an overwhelming victory.

MACKRIS: Well, it would be a privilege to have you on The O'Reilly Factor to talk about that. Is there anything we can do to help that happen?

CLINTON: We'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Ah, we'll see. I don't think her handlers really like us.

Anyway, Mrs. Clinton of course welcome to come on in here as Bono is going to do on Wednesday and Sean P. Diddy Combs on Thursday. So we have a chair for you, senator. And there you have it.

The GOP comes out guns blazing. Democrats and liberal media work the other side. The Factor is overjoyed to be right here in the middle of it. And that's a memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

At the MTV Music Awards (search), there was a very strange occurrence. The daughters of John Kerry, Alexandra and Vanessa, walked out onstage and were greeted this way...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANESSA KERRY: ... to suggest that you get involved in this election and vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, we don't know why that happened, those boos, and we think it's pretty rude and very ridiculous, and downright weird that the MTV crowd would behave this way. Maybe if the ladies cut a rap album the reception would have been different.

—You can watch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com