On his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), saying that he would not have been surprised if under a Kerry administration “the federal holiday of Christmas [had been] abolished” and replaced with “winter solstice or something.”
O'Reilly hyped stories last holiday season that “secular progressives” were conducting an "attack on Christmas." O'Reilly also generated substantial controversy when he told a Jewish caller to his radio show that because the United States is a “predominantly Christian nation ... if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel.”
From the September 21 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: Now, the hardcore right that supports Bush is also angry at him because of the border. So Bush has got his main constituency angry at him because no matter what evidence comes forth from the southern border, he won't do anything about it. So people who want action to protect themselves against millions of people coming in here, who we don't know anything about, and who are having a huge impact on day-to-day life in America -- and a sitting president ignores the problem. He doesn't deal with it. When's the last time he had a press conference on the border saying, “I'm going to do X, Y, and Z”? So his core constituency is sitting there going, “Well, we think that the press is unfair to him, but he's not doing it on the border.” So the president's support is eroding everywhere.
The only thing that he's got solid is that the Christian right will back him because of the judges. Because they fear that if the Democrats get in power, they'll put in loony judges on the Supreme Court who would just turn this nation upside-down. And they will. I mean, John Kerry would appoint judges that would, you know -- no “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. No “under God” anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised under a Kerry administration to see the federal holiday of Christmas be abolished. And they'll put in winter solstice or something.
So the Christian right will stay with Bush, purely because of the judges issue. But on every other issue, he's got huge problems. Everywhere.