People are MAD!

Whew! I have only been hanging around Kos for a couple months now, but I find it quite amusing how mad people are right now over Obama's interview on Fox News Sunday. I just want to make a few quick points here that I think a lot of people are missing completely, then I will go back into my hole.

1. Most importantly, "Obama is not running for President of the United States of Blogistan" (thanks Azdak). The central theme of Obama's message is that we need to get past the things that divide us so we can solve the real issues. Just like there are many people on this site right here that will never watch, listen, or read anything that is a product of Fox News, there are just as many people that ONLY watch Fox News because they can't stomach news outlets like this. By Obama going on FNS he is exposing himself and his message to MILLIONS of people that otherwise would only hear and see what Sean Effing Hannity has to say.

2. Can anyone give me a good example of someone that has been successful in "taking on" Fox News? What exactly is to gain if Obama would have went on the show and started a bickering match with Chris Wallace over just how bad Fox News is? I know many people are upset that he even went on the network in the first place (see point number 1), and all you want is for Ruppert Murdock and his news empire to spontaneously disintegrate. Just like our health care system, if we were starting from scratch a completely different system would be the best thing for the country. Yes, the main stream media sucks and something has to change, but that's not going to happen overnight. The fact is people have been screaming in forums like these for years about the injustices of Fox News and the Right and what has it accomplished? Do you honestly think Obama could have brought up every one of those points and made any progress? Fox would receive huge ratings, and many people that actually watch Fox (many independents) would have been completely turned off to Obama and could now write him off as the Liberal the Right is working for.

3. I have followed Barack Obama very closely for the past two years, probably closer than a reasonable person would consider healthy. Overall, I think he knows what he's doing. He knows very well the way the American People receive their news has to change, and at the center of that change is Fox. If you trust him to be Commander in Chief, to handle the life or death situation in Iraq and Afghanistan; if you trust him to fix health care and manage the largest economy in the world; if you trust him to talk to the likes of Ahmedinejad and Chavez; I think we can put our faith in him that he has a plan how to handle Fox even if we don't see exactly what we want. He didn't get to where he's at right now by playing the same old game.