Well, President Bush has to be feeling good today. His speech Tuesday night was well delivered and well received by most Americans, and that's the subject of this evening's Talking Points memo.
No question Mr. Bush has raised his game significantly from the man who stumbled around during the presidential debates. He was commanding in the House chamber last night and scored a perfect 10 in his outline of the future war on terror.
But I gave Mr. Bush a B for his speech overall because he failed to address two very important issues for all Americans. The first one is the border problem with Mexico, which is a disaster and a huge security risk. We've talked about that a lot here on The Factor.
And the second problem is energy, which is absolutely vital. America still gets more than half of its oil from foreign countries and 9 percent from Saudi Arabia alone. Unfortunately, the Saudis are not our friends, could turn on us in a heartbeat, and are at the center of the worldwide terror network.
So what's President Bush going to do about Saudi Arabia? We don't know. Talking Points wanted the president to spell out the danger here. We can't continue to be at the mercy of a nation that believes Palestinian terrorists, Hamas and others, have a perfect right to slaughter Israeli children. Saudi Arabia is angry that the Bush administration has condemned this behavior and moved away from Yasser Arafat, who condones attacks on civilians.
The first step in confronting the Saudis is an intense campaign of energy conservation here in the USA. All Americans should cut back their use of oil. If you care about your country, this has to be done. But there was no mention of that by the president.
The second step is developing cars that run on fuel cells. The Koreans are doing it, why can't we? We have the technology to make vehicles that run on very little gas, but we haven't developed that industry because big business, the oil companies and the car makers, have bought many of our politicians.
Now back to Saudi Arabia. This country will not support any action against Saddam Hussein, has not fully cooperated in tracing terrorist money, continues to allow anti-American schools to operate in the kingdom, and has made veiled threats about removing U.S. bases from its soil. Saudi Arabia is a fuse just waiting for a match, and we get 9 percent of our oil from this place? Big problem.
And we got to move fast to diffuse it. The Arab world is fully behind the Palestinian terrorists, and this puts it on a collision course with America.
Now, hopefully things will cool down, but the USA cannot continue to be this vulnerable. And Mr. Bush knows it. So let's get moving, Mr. President, let's begin with a national oil conservation program.
And that's the memo.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Time for the Most Ridiculous Item of the Day.
FOX News has surpassed CNN in the ratings for the month of January. We beat them pretty handily. Good for us. Ridiculous for CNN, which is seen in more than nine million homes than we are. We still beat them outright.
The Factor, by the way, is the highest-rated cable news program in the world. And we thank you all very much. We know it's you that made that possible.
— You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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