Fighting the Good Fight

President Obama should fire White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and hire me as his top adviser. Don't laugh. I can almost guarantee higher poll numbers for the president if he brings me on board.

The first thing I would do is declare a truce with Fox News. Right now, the president is spending more time launching offensives against FNC than against the Taliban. The American people want Osama bin Laden's head on a stick not Glenn Beck's. What exactly does attacking FNC get the president? Plus, it's hypocritical. Didn't Barack Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Next, I would suggest that the commander-in-chief actually listen to his top general in Afghanistan and his secretary of defense. After listening, the president would immediately send 40,000 more troops to provide additional security in that God-forsaken place. As a trusted adviser, I would remind the president that the United States military is a vital enterprise and deserves a chance to win in Afghanistan.

After accomplishing those two things, Obama and I would get lunch. Then, back to work.

Bringing down health care costs is huge for the president, and I would advise him to drop the so-called "public option" and concentrate on increased insurance competition across state lines. If insurance companies could compete nationwide, health premiums would fall. And if you add tort reform to blunt the out-of-control medical lawsuit industry, doctors and medical personnel could charge less because their enormous medical malpractice bills would shrink.

By the way, the vast majority of Americans would support both of those things because they are free.

Having dealt with all of that, the president and I would sit down for a heart to heart. I would tell him that he has to tamp down his fascination with far-left radicals. Hanging around with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was OK when Obama was a Chicago community guy shooting hoops in the schoolyard. Now that he's the most powerful man in the world, the left-wing loon factor must become a red flag.

I would gently suggest to the president that he tell his top aides not to publicly say Chairman Mao was a great philosopher, as White House Communications Director Anita Dunn recently did. In fact, while Mao was weaving his philosophy, more than 30 million Chinese died grisly deaths. So, as the president's top adviser, I would urge the following: NO MORE REFERENCES TO MAO!

Finally, I would advise Obama to stay off TV for a while. There is no question that he is overexposed. However, I would counsel him to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor." Because O'Reilly is no longer in the anchor seat, having taken the White House position, the president might even be able to complete a sentence. So, OK to Fox News. Detente at last.

Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?" To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com.

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