President Obama, the Sunday Morning Guy

As you may know, the president did a number of interviews on Sunday, all the big networks except for FOX. Apparently the Obama administration is angry with us and shut Chris Wallace out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": These guys, everything is personal. I have got to tell you, Bill.

O'REILLY: Everything.

WALLACE: They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington. They constantly are on the phone or e-mailing me complaining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Click here to watch Bill's "Talking Points."

Well, the Sunday interviews themselves are a bit sleepy. Nobody asked about fired radical White House employee Van Jones and only one question about the ACORN scandal.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS, HOST, "THIS WEEK": How about the funding for ACORN?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know, frankly, it's not really something I followed closely, I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

STEPHANOPOLOUS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.

OBAMA: What I know is what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be…

STEPHANOPOLOUS: So you're not committing to cut off the federal funding?

OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to.

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The president should be paying attention because political corruption is involved and that corruption involves taxpayer dollars. While it's true that ACORN is not Afghanistan or health care, it is a situation that should be investigated by the Justice Department. Mr. Obama should order that right now. It's what leaders do.

As far as health care is concerned, the president sees it this way:

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OBAMA: I think what I am proposing is a very modest attempt to make sure that hardworking families out there are going to have the security of a health insurance that they can count on. This isn't a radical plan. This isn't grafting a single payer model onto the United States. It's simply trying to deal with what everybody acknowledges as a big problem. I think that there are some opponents who have seized on this and have tried to use this as a proxy for saying that somehow we are vastly expanding government and taking over every sector of the economy. That's what a lot of this debate is about. I think they are wrong.

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The key issue, Mr. President, is the massive expense of Obamacare. The president believes the country can pay for health care reform by cracking down on waste and fraud in the present system. Who else believes that? Who?

And the Congressional Budget Office is issuing dire financial warnings about Obamacare. Now, the interviewer should have zeroed in on that. It's very simple. But, of course, they did not.

Also, the president said forcing all Americans to buy health insurance and making them pay a penalty if they don't is not a tax, as some believe. Well, he is right on that. It's not a tax. It's a fine. And I think it might be unconstitutional. The president also said this about health care:

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OBAMA: I don't think that illegal immigrants should be covered under this health care plan. There should be a verification mechanism in place. We do that for a whole range of existing social programs, and I think that's a pretty straightforward principle that will be met.

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The left isn't going to like that, but I like President Obama when he speaks clearly and simply with no wiggle room. He also did that on the race issue that Jimmy Carter blew up last week.

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OBAMA: The media loves to have a conversation about race. I mean, this is catnip to the media because it is a running thread in American history that's very powerful, and it invokes some very strong emotions. I'm not saying that race never matters in any of these public debates that we have. What I'm saying is this debate that's taking place is not about race. It's about people being worried about how our government should operate.

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And that is 100 percent accurate.

Now, on the subject of national security, the president was confronted by this:

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JOHN KING, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Seven former directors of Central Intelligence have sent you a letter saying please invoke your authority to stop the attorney general's investigation of the Bush era interrogation tactics. Will you do that?

OBAMA: You know, first of all, I respect all seven of them. And as importantly, or more importantly, I have absolute respect and have reliance upon a robust CIA. And I have said before, I want to look forward and not backwards on this issue. On the other hand, I have also said nobody is above the law, and I don't want to start getting into the business of squelching, you know, investigations that are being conducted.

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Now, that is really, really weak. It is a weak answer. Investigating the CIA is a national security issue. Thus, the president should make the call. He has the power. So Mr. Obama is being a bit disingenuous here.

Finally, there was this on CBS.

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OBAMA: I have no interest in increasing the size of government. I just want to make sure we have got a smart government that is regulating, for example, the financial institutions smartly so I don't have to engage in any kind of bank bailouts. That's point No. 1.

And point No. 2, even though we are having a passionate disagreement here, we can be civil to each other, and we can try to express ourselves, acknowledging that we are all patriots. We are all Americans, and not assume the absolute worst in people's motives. And I have to — one last point I have got to make, Bob, and that is I do think part of what is different today is that the 24-hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all of this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can't get enough of conflict. It's catnip to the media right now. And so the easiest way to get 15 minutes of fame is to be rude to somebody.

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Now, there is truth in that. But sometimes seeking the truth demands rudeness, forceful dialogue. However the president is correct: Ideological meanness sells. You can make money doing that. You see it all the time on TV, the radio and the Net.

All in all, the president's Sunday morning adventure allowed him to get his points across with minimal confrontation.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Singer Beyonce was very gracious last week to Taylor Swift in that ridiculous Kanye West situation. And now she's done another good thing. At a concert in Sydney, Australia, she brought a young girl who has leukemia onto the stage. Beyonce is a patriot.

Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!

On the pinhead front, South African singer Dave Matthews seems to know a lot about America.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Carter said he thinks a lot of the animosity directed towards President Barack Obama is race related.

DAVE MATTHEWS, SINGER: Of course it is. There are a good population of people in this country that are terrified of the president just — only because he's black.

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Really? Pinhead? Most likely.

— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com