where was this "outrage" when hillary clinton was on fox news?

i mean, if they want take a stand that fox news is off limits, thats fine. But why are they hitting obama for it and not hillary too? Her campaign has done more to legitimize them than Obama has done for crying out loud.

Bill took on Wallace and how did it play in the media overall? Bill was made out to have lost his cool and exploded even though he was absolutely right about the idiotic question from Wallace.

Obama had two options and a just in case option as well. He could have just stayed away and not get a chance to get his voice in front of the Fox news viewers who only see him in Hannity's framing or go on the who and act like a President of the United States should act. The "just in case" would have been if he got a hand grenade of a question from Wallace then defend himself aggressively; but don't loose you cool overall.

This is a bit much to take. So MoveOn is now the standard bearer for the "mainstream political dialogue"?

Well, I agree with them, but like it or not Obama is a centrist, not a liberal activist. I don't like that myself, but since Hillary (who once upon a time was my second choice after Edwards) jumped the shark quite a while ago, he's the only game in town. And he'll run his campaign the way he thinks will get him elected, not the way Kos or MoveOn like. Deal.

BTW, if you keep cross referencing this site, isn't there the danger of some kind of link looping? Wouldn't want to get cyber-whiplash.

yet move on is silent about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ2nVor0bSI

and this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BspCUHqXME0

and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byks1n17arc

why the double standard, move-on?

Oh, brother. People really misread into the "Take Fox News on" statement, didn't they?

I just thought Barack went on to get them to remove that damn counter they had going.

Who is more fringe: Fox News or MoveOn? I say this not to troll...

Hillary INSULTED MoveON ! She's just like a Republican! Booooo....

MoveOn insults Obama! That's good, cuz he needs to win as a Republican! Yay.....

MoveOn has gone way overboard on this one. The man is trying to win an election, not uphold some weird principle. Did MoveOn issue a response to Hillary's trashing on them last week? I may have missed it.

Greg - looking forward to your pieces about Obama's enormous electoral advantage in Wisconsin and NM Sen Bingaman's endorsement of Obama:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGCpYk

Come on.

No one has done more for Moveon.org than Barack Obama.

Move On and Kos need to get the hissyfit out of their systems. Yeah we all hate Fox but for millions of people (actual voters not just right wing extremists) consider it an actual news organization. I hate that they do but I'd rather that some of them see Obama interviewed and think that he is a reasonable, thoughtful man who that they then will vote for. We might have liked Bill Clinton's eruption at Chris Wallace but that didn't actually do Bill any good, did it?

Some days the web is so frustrating.

It looks to me as if this is part of his overall stratagy to make him less of a liberal, to make him more palatable for the upcoming Indiana primary. Moveon is just accomodating him. Too obvious it won't work.

This is like the worst Monday Obama's had in probably a decade.

It is amazing how The Daily Kos, Move On and Real Clear Politics are pushing the "Take Fox News on" as a means of expressing their distaste for Obama being on Fox at least in the case of the first two. With Real Clear Politics it is never clear. In other words it must be news if someone else repeats it over and over , and over or something like the MSM, Fox are accused of doing.

Yes, I am glad that TPM has broaden its reached, but this does not validate TPM's approach in the basic story;i.e., it was over hyped.

I thought Kos was over the top and more so than Greg; Kos specifically linked to this site as validation for his view. The Daily Kos readers were no kinder to him than the TPM readers were to Greg. In short Kos overreached.

From where I sit this is not a good thing for the blogs; this remains a virtual world. To the extent that the blogs have been successful, much of is due to the medium, the political environment of the passed ten years, the nit-wit Bush administration, and generational changes as best exemplified by this very medium.

I would have enjoyed seeing Fox pummeled, but nothing was to have been gained, and from what I saw it went well and the commentators looked more foolish than usual( no I do not look at this crap often). Two, Kristol and Williams, nearly held up Clinton placards, and the other two were almost intellectually honest; this is a milestone.

Nope, Obama didn't gain any point with this group, his appearance simple put them more on the defensive. Yes, they will continue to lie and so on but some of their viewers may be less accepting than they were absent hearing Obama on Fox.

So how many of you turn Fox off during the championship games?

I just read Josh's comment on all this and at least he hasn't lost his mind too as Kos seems to have.

Stupid controversy. Stupid reaction. Stupid waste of time. Kos, MoveOn and Sargent strike me as being a little bit hysterical in the reaction to Obama being on Fox.

Okay, so today, Obama was denounced by Move On, dissed by Kos and subjected to harsh criticisms by Rev. Wright.

I love Kos and am sympathetically ambivalent to Wright and Move On (who seem to have certain rhetorical tendencies in common), but being read out by all three of them loses him exactly zero votes in Indiana and North Carolina and potentially gains him some, or saves him some waverers, in both states.

The Left can be really, truly self-destructive.

What kills me about all of this, is that if MoveOn were truly gung ho for Obama (other than the stupid email poll that let Americans decide which candidate to endorse), then why are they so surprised that he would go on Fox News? For reals?

Obama himself has said that he will talk with Iran, South Korea and Cuba. Those are stances that I personally applaud the man for - bringing back diplomacy. We all know he's going to be attacked by the conservatives in the general for saying these things (but I feel he'll ultimately prevail).

So this is really, really, REALLY, ridiculously silly for Kos, MoveOn, TPM, etc to get their panties all in a knot for him talking to -GASP! Run! Hide! The Sky Is Falling! - Chris Wallace.

Give me a fucking break. Pardon my french.

2 things happened

1) Obama wanted to show he was not a wimp...as Hill was painting him in her ads

2) Fox gave Obama a pass for totally PR purposes. Why shouldn't they given the Democratic candidates are glad to attack each other.

Perhaps the Obama camp putting out the "take on" Fox news thing was completely calculated. The idea being that a bunch of conservative people who love Fox news would then be expecting to be angry at Obama.

What they got instead was a thoughtful, calm, polite man. So perhaps the "shock" of something completely different than their expectation makes it more likely for them to radically change their opinion of Obama.

So, maybe the whole thing was just a shrewd political move?

ABC is as bad as FOX. Hillary Clinton and the moderators were clearly in cahoots at that disgusting debate. I never saw anyone comment on the fact that Hillary kept looking down at her prepared notes when she commented on Ayers. She knew the subject was going to be raised because she was told in advance. There's a shameful drift from the non-FOX stations. Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC act like they have a vendetta against Obama. He might as well go on FOX at this point, and maybe that's his point.

I'm disappointed in the lack of imagination Obama's critics are displaying in reference to his appearance on Fox.

Could it not simply be that Obama and his team were honestly expecting an antagonistic interview, which would explain the "taking on" statement in advance of the event? For all we know Obama was thoroughly prepared to smack down whatever inflammatory questions might have come his way. But what would we expect him to "take on" in absence of such attacks?

If anyone is disappointed in the lack of combativeness exhibited during the interview, that wasn't because of anything Obama failed to do, but was rather the obvious consequence of the considerate, intelligent questioning by Chris Wallace. In such an interview environment (something we should be glad about, btw), there just wasn't anything for Obama to take on.

It seems that Obama going on Fox does nothing to "legitimize" this channel. He wins no votes by staying off the channel. Dems know what this channel is. His move to go on air with Chris Wallace does go a long way to legitimize his candidacy in the eyes of many of Fox's viewers. I think his tone and disarming approach were spot on. He appeals to independents and some republicans. In Indiana and NC this may be what he needs to end this primary. I think KOS is whining because Obama hasn't been a contributor on his site in a while and he needs the pageviews for his ad revenue. It almost seemed like he was making such a fuss to try and get Obama's attention and make him post a response. Maybe Kos should start a "Obama won't post" count down like one of his frequent contributors suggested. I found his rant to be petulant and without merit. Most of all, what does it matter if he is able to reach out and change the minds of some Fox viewers in the midwest or beyond. My Dad was one of them and he's now an Obama supporter from Wisconsin.

MoveOn has lost all credibility.

Who cares for THEIR opinion.

They're a bunch of NUTS and far left loonies!

Rae

Saying that Fox's power isn't in its large audience size belies the fact that Fox's power IS in its large audience size.

There are some enormous egos flying around the blogosphere. This whole thing seems to come down to: how DARE some unnamed campaign source tell Greg Sargent they were going after Fox.

Shorter Greg:

MoveOn agrees with me! Kos too! Nyah nyah nyah!!!

Going on Fox puts him in front of people like my Republican parents who ONLY watch Fox "news." He's said all along his strategy is to reach out to Republicans, so this seems a logical tactic.

And not ripping into the Fox desk jockies seems logical as well. That approach might have made MoveOn happy, but it certainly wouldn't have helped him earn any points with Fox viewers like my parents, who are "leaning Obama" and could become "solid Obama."