Haters Need Not Apply

Here's a question for you: Which president was hated more by his opponents, Clinton or Bush the younger? In just a few moments I'll talk to President Bush about the personal attacks leveled against him, but my vote goes to Mr. Bush as enduring more vitriol, although it's close. President Clinton got hammered as well.

Now the difference is the secular-progressive press, which largely sympathized with Mr. Clinton, despises the Bush administration. And in a departure from historical precedent, President Jimmy Carter is now attacking President Bush almost weekly.

Last night in Atlanta, Carter said that the Bush administration should be talking to terrorists and to North Korea. And because we don't talk to them, it's understandable they're upping the violence.

Now with all due respect to Mr. Carter, who is a patriot, he is so desperately wrong, it's comical. Carter talked his rear end off with Iran while that country held 52 American hostages. He got nowhere and the USA was humiliated.

In 1994, Carter again bloviated extensively with North Korea about nukes and helped engineer a deal with that country. Of course, North Korea violated the deal, humiliating the Clinton administration.

So Carter isn't doing all that well in the chat department, is he? But you will not see Jimmy Carter taking the task by the elite media, because in their eyes, the Bush administration is far worse than his administration was.

The S-Ps simply hate President Bush. And all rationality has been lost because of that hatred. That puts all of us in danger. The foreign media apes the American media. And so Mr. Bush is demeaned, libeled, slandered and marginalized.

That's why my conversation with him is so important. You can see him up close facing the questions of the day. And you can now decide whether all the hatred is warranted.

Talking Points believes the president, like Jimmy Carter, is a patriot and is trying to do his best for the nation in a brutally difficult time.

Again, you can decide whether his best is good enough. But all of us should condemn the vicious personal attacks lodged against him.

The good news is many of us are. Air America is bankrupt. Many of the far-left newspapers are also in financial distress. And the haters on TV and radio pretty much are locked into a very narrow world. And that's a good thing.

America is a place of robust debate, but haters need not apply.

And that's The Memo.

Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

The good people at the Oprah Winfrey program have invited me on to talk with the most powerful woman in America.

After seeing my report earlier this week, analyzing Oprah's guest list where secularist-progressives far outnumber traditionalists, we received the invitation. And that is a good thing.

So I'll fly out to Chicago and tape the program next week. It's set to run a week from this Friday, October 27, just before Halloween.

Ridiculous? It shouldn't be, but you always make the call about that. So we appreciate that. That's a good thing.

—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" 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