O'Reilly: Hillary Is a Lock for Party Nod

Hillary Clinton’s political machine is so powerful that only a “demonstrable scandal” can keep her from winning the Democratic presidential nomination, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

“The machine is just too powerful,” O’Reilly tells Newsmax: “She may lose New Hampshire and Iowa. But it doesn’t matter.

“On Super Tuesday, she’s got the dough,” he says. “The Democratic stalwarts are going to come out in her favor.”

Sen. Clinton has been roundly criticized for waffling in recent debates on issues such as New York Gov. Elliott Spitzer’s now-defunct proposal to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. As a result, some pundits see her as politically vulnerable.

O’Reilly disagrees.

“She’s going to pretty much walk in there, I believe, unless there’s a scandal,” he says.

O’Reilly bases his assessment on the overall strength of Hillary’s political organization.

“The machine that she has built is so strong - the vote turnout, the donations to her campaign, the precinct chiefs everywhere - I mean these other guys aren’t going to compete with that. They can’t.

“Even if the far left doesn’t really like her that much, they are going to say, ‘Well it’s better than a Republican, so we’ll support her,’ ” he says.

The general election will be a far different story than the primary, however. In fact, O’Reilly handicaps that contest as even.

“Whenever you get Hillary Clinton involved in anything, you get tremendous emotion on both sides,” he explains. “I think that if the Republicans put up a strong candidate who can zero in on the terror war, and other things like immigration, it is going to be close.

“And it comes down to Ohio and Florida,” he adds.


O’Reilly’s other predictions:

• Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are in a dead heat for the GOP nomination: “If I had to bet, I’d say Giuliani will probably take the day.”

• Terrorism and the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons remain the biggest issues facing America. If another 9/11-style attack takes place, O’Reilly predicts the country will swing “sharply to the right.”

• About half of the country still doesn’t understand that aggressive measures are necessary to protect the United States from future terrorist attack. “People have got to wake up. 9/11 wasn’t a one-time deal,” he warns.

• Hillary will not give Sen. Barack Obama the nod as her running mate. “She needs to get somebody in the Ohio realm who can influence the vote there. She’s already got the African-American vote. Anything can happen in these kinds of deals, but to me she’s got to be looking for somebody who can swing Ohio over to her.”