Olbermann named Fox's Gibson "Worst Person" for claiming Clinton "makes a deal with Al Qaeda"

Summary: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Fox News host John Gibson the "winner" of his "Worst Person in the World" segment for claiming that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made "a deal with Al Qaeda" to "go easier" on terrorists if elected president.

During the August 28 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann named Fox News' John Gibson the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for, as Media Matters for America documented, purporting to do "a little interpretation" of a comment Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) made at an August 23 campaign event about the potential consequences of another terrorist attack and claiming that Clinton made "a deal with Al Qaeda" to "go easier" on terrorists if elected president. Olbermann commented that Gibson "used his superior mind to conclude that she was speaking in code." He continued, quoting from Gibson's remarks: "[S]he was 'sending this signal,' as they say, to Al Qaeda, that it would not be smart to attack the United States of America before the election. Otherwise you're going to get another Bush militarist in there, and he's gonna bomb your cities, and kill your kids and your women. So lay off 'til I'm president, and I'll go easier. Hillary makes a deal with Al Qaeda. Did she go too far this time? I know it's a deniable quote, 'Well that isn't what I meant,' but we all get her drift."

As noted by Media Matters for America, Gibson claimed that Clinton said "that it would be a terrible thing if Al Qaeda were to attack again now, because that would benefit the Republicans." According to the Associated Press, Clinton actually said:

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world. ... So I think I'm the best of the Democrats to deal with that as well."

From the August 28 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: And your winner, from the same corner of the right-wing fringe, John Gibson, divining that when Hillary Clinton acknowledged that Republicans would probably try to exploit any possible terror act, or threat, or even rumor, and she'd be the best Democrat at both handling the threat and handling the Republican boasting.

Gibby has used his superior mind to conclude that she was speaking in code. Quoting him: "[S]he was 'sending this signal,' as they say, to Al Qaeda, that it would not be smart to attack the United States of America before the election. Otherwise you're going to get another Bush militarist in there, and he's gonna bomb your cities, and kill your kids and your women. So lay off 'til I'm president, and I'll go easier. Hillary makes a deal with Al Qaeda. Did she go too far this time? I know it's a deniable quote, 'Well that isn't what I meant,' but we all get her drift."

A deal. With Al Qaeda, John. Her drift, John. The only drift, John, is your continuing drift away from sanity. John Gibson of Fox Noise, today's Worst Person in the World.

—A.J.W.