Bill O'Reilly's Failed Leadership

First off, let me state that my opinion of Bill O'Reilly is that his radio program is amongst my favorites when it comes to the right wing perspective. Bill O'Reilly at least is not amongst those whom I describe as clowns.

However, if you want to listen and consider Bill's point of view, you got to get past sexual indiscretion. Bill attempted to engage in phone sex with one of his employees after he had a little too much to drink or something. If I can forgive Bill Clinton for his indiscretions (which were physical in nature) I can forgive Bill O'Reilly for attempting to engage in a little phone sex.

But what irks me is that Bill O'Reilly refuses to admit to mistakes when it comes to leadership. (See here) where it is reported that Bill O'Reilly decries that there is no leadership from within current candidates seeking to run for the office of President.

First, let me condemn Bill O'Reilly for himself not being willing to accept at least partial responsibility for the mess America has currently got herself into in Iraq. As the NewsMax piece reports, Bill stated:

Asked if the Iraq war can be viewed as "a mistake" on the part of the Bush administration, O'Reilly was ambivalent.

"I'm not a Monday morning quarterback," he said. "We're in a war. Let's win it."

However Bill offers no leadership on how we are to do this himself. He himself is at least partially to blame for getting us into the mess and he himself has no plan to get us out of it.

How about this Bill? Senator Joe Biden representing Maryland has a plan to federalize the Iraqi central government and split the oil wealth revenues between the states that would result. There would be a Kurdish state, a Sunni state, and a Shiite state.

We can not force the Iraqi people to accept this plan, however we can withdraw our forces and our protection from any groups of people within Iraq that refuse to accept our solution.

Now I do not support Senator Biden in his run for the Presidency. However I can acknowledge kernels of wisdom when they arise from amongst those who seek to run for President.

Bill O'Reilly says he will not be a Monday Morning Quarterback. However this did not stop him from shooting his mouth off on Saturday evening before Sunday's game started. Since he is at least partially responsible for getting us into the mess, I would expect him to now come up with suggestions on how to improve the team so that we are more competitive.

The problem, for Bill O'Reilly, is that there are no easy answers. Bill O'Reilly's Saturday evening answer led us into the situation we are in within Iraq. He is not about to endorse any solution because once again he might be wrong and he does not want to be wrong twice in a row.

My suggestion is much along the lines of Senator Biden's. We get tough with the various forces that exercise political power within Iraq. We will not continue to offer everyone protection. We can't do that. We can seek to empower those who are willing to accept a reasonable resolution.

Anyone who seeks to win through violence loses and violence is visited upon them. Anyone who stands behind justice and peace wins.

Inaction in support of justice will be the same as action towards violence. If the Iraqi people want justice, they are going to have to stand up for it.

I do not support Senator Biden for President. I think he is lacking in many of the qualities I want as President. However in his plan for Iraq he speaks wisdom.

Bill O'Reilly refuses to be a Monday Morning Quarterback. He refuses to accept that his game plan for America was wrong while every solution offered by a Democrat must be a mistake.

I only lament that Bill O'Reilly is amongst the best the right wing talk show hosts have to offer. Bill O'Reilly just needs to be a little more honest with himself. He was amongst those who on Saturday evening cheered us on into getting into Iraq. It is now Monday morning. Bill O'Reilly needs to help us figure out what went wrong on Sunday.

Senator Biden's plan might not be perfect, but there is more wisdom in this plan than anything the "stay the course" Republicans have offered. If Bill O'Reilly has a better plan, well I am all ears.