Does Miller Think Americans Have Gotten Soft?
Funnyman sounds off on Obama's controversial comment, Wall Street protests
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 5, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly.
In the "Miller Time" segment tonight, last week, President Obama made an appeal to Americans: get tougher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is, you know, a great, great country that had gotten a little soft, and we didn't have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: That comment got Miller's attention, and I talked to the D- man last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'REILLY: So Miller, what about this "we're soft?" We're getting soft here? Is this a Viagra commercial? What's going on?
DENNIS MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: We're soft in the head, Billy, for electing this guy. He's the -- he's the salt in the flimsy, for God's sakes. When you can stay on your parent's medical coverage until 26 and you can get two years of unemployment; Obamacare will pay for medical marijuana and throw in foot stamps for munchies. At that point this entire country is "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 3," all right? And it's on him.
O'REILLY: Now, he says that we've lost our competitive edge, which means that we're not willing, I guess, to work hard enough. And I hate to say this, because I know it's going to interrupt your lines and your monologue. But I think he's right in some circles. I think there are a lot of people with their hands out: "Gimme, gimme, gimme. Don't really want to work too hard for it. Gimme, gimme, gimme."
Now, the Obama administration, no problem with that. It -- he does -- it gives them, but he doesn't, I guess, like giving it to him.
MILLER: What do I care what he likes or dislikes? That's even more disingenuous if he's giving it to him and he dislikes them. Listen, the only -- the only people that this guy will come down on are the Jews in Israel and the Tea Party. Why doesn't he flatten these kids with a Sister Souljah moment down in Wall Street this week, this Island of Misfit Toys and hemp hoodies.
O'REILLY: Do you think the nation has gone soft? Are we as tough as we were, say, right after World War II?
MILLER: I say we're just this side of al dente. So no, we're not the greatest generation. We're the grating-est generation. A lot of whining, Billy. A lot of whining.
O'REILLY: I think it's the lattes. It's the bottled water. You know, it's all sapping our strength. Got to get back to the real stuff.
MILLER: Well, I don't know about you, Billy, but I get most motivated in my life when my cat's paw heels are dangling over the abyss. I get motivated from knowing I can crash. And if you don't think you can crash it any more, yes, we're going to get softer and softer.
O'REILLY: All right. Hank Williams Jr., was he singing the "Are You Ready for Some Football" while you were doing "Monday Night Football"?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: HANK WILLIAMS JR'S "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILLER: Yes, but yesterday he changed it to "Are You Ready for Some Foot Mouth," because he put his right in it.
Now, listen, I don't like when anybody does that Hitler thing. I think when I was young and, you know, ill formed and reactionary, I played that card on people. I look back on it. It's tired. It's boring. It's hackneyed. I'm sorry he stepped in it. I kind of like Hank Williams. I definitely love the song.
But you know something? The PC in the NFL and the TV business, it's rampant. And that is the most PC place in the culture.
O'REILLY: What he said was, you know, he was trying to make an analogy and always bad to use Nazis in analyses. You don't do this. And he basically said, look, if you get guys together like President Obama and Speaker Boehner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANK WILLIAMS JR., MUSICIAN: That would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I'm of two minds. It is dumb to bring Hitler up. You're absolutely right. Can't do that in this PC society. But what he said, is isn't -- he isn't comparing Obama to Hitler. He's comparing the situation, the strange bedfellows. He's not saying Obama is Hitler. He really isn't saying that. I mean, I'm just trying to be fair here, OK, but it doesn't matter, I guess?
MILLER: Wait a second. You're telling me Obama is not systematically liquidated...
O'REILLY: No, no. Williams wasn't implying that. He was just making an analogy that was so offensive that they booted him off -- ESPN booted him off, I guess.
MILLER: That's because it's all about commerce, and they can't rock the boat over there, for God sakes.
O'REILLY: Yes, that's right.
MILLER: He's got to be whacked.
Don't take it seriously, Hank. It's just -- it's a fiscal decision. You slipped up. They'd probably let you back in because they know you didn't mean he's killed 6 million Jews, but it's just you've got to go.
O'REILLY: All right. Now, do you know who C.J. Wickersham is? C.J. Wickersham, do you know who he is?
MILLER: No. Wasn't that a Nic Cage film? No, that was "The Wickerman." No, I don't know who C.J. Wickersham is.
O'REILLY: A spear fisherman in Florida. Twenty-one years old. He's a spear fisherman in Florida. So he's spearing the fish, all right, and the blood is going all over the place.
MILLER: Right.
O'REILLY: And this little bull shark comes zooming in and takes a chunk out of C.J.'s leg. He's all right. He's in the hospital. And then PETA takes that incident and -- put up the full screen -- and says that payback is hell, because the shark got C.J. and PETA doesn't like people going fishing. What do you say?
MILLER: I say, listen, I don't want to be too obvious and say they jumped the shark here, because they didn't. They jumped the shark when they started comparing meat slaughterhouses to Buchenwald, Dachau, and Auschwitz. I haven't listened to a thing PETA said since that.
The fact is, there are sometimes animals needing defending. But these people have turned into cat ladies. They're way out there. It's gray guns (ph). They're a little whacked, and nobody takes them that seriously any more. You hear PETA, I'll nod my head just to get away from the scene, because they're a little nuts right now.
O'REILLY: All right. So you -- they say we do this to get publicity, and we want everybody to be vegan and so we can do this, because it's satire. It draws attention to ourselves. We -- we run around naked. We do all kinds of things. But it's -- the greater good is served by getting people away from eating fish and meat.
Don't you die if you don't eat anything? I thought you died if you didn't eat anything.
MILLER: Well, you either die or you get so asphyxiated by low blood sugar that you start making moron ads like PETA does, for God's sake.
O'REILLY: So wait a minute. Maybe this is right. Maybe they don't have enough nutrition to think straight?
MILLER: Protein. Billy, protein and a little ginkgo biloba. Get that mind rotating again, for God's sakes.
O'REILLY: Are you ready for some Miller?
MILLER: Football. Thank you, officer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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