On the October 26 broadcast of his radio show, FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly urged his audience: "[F]igure out who Osama bin Laden would vote for, you vote for the other guy." Seconds later, O'Reilly declared: “I'm gonna go out on a limb. I think they [Al Qaeda] fear [President George W.] Bush more than [Senator John] Kerry.”

O'Reilly's tacit endorsement came after months of insisting he was undecided on whom to vote for in the November 2 election and would not endorse a candidate. O'Reilly repeated this commitment to impartiality near the beginning of the same October 26 program, just minutes before his endorsement:

O'REILLY: I got somebody saying, “Well, why, O'Reilly, don't you endorse? You know, you say you're the op-ed page, like a newspaper -- well, newspapers endorse, why don't you?” It's a legitimate question, and I say because I have to keep an eye on all of these people. That's my job. I'm like a watchdog here. I'm your ombudsman -- all right? I work for you, see? And, if I endorse a candidate or something like that, then that gives me a dog in the hunt. And, I really don't have a dog in the hunt. You know what I want is the best man to win.

Shortly after O'Reilly's tacit endorsement, a caller asked how O'Reilly reconciled this apparent endorsement of Bush with earlier promises not to endorse anyone. O'Reilly and his co-host, E.D. Hill, vigorously denied that O'Reilly's statement was an endorsement, insisting that O'Reilly had “argue[d] it both ways.”

From the October 26 broadcast of the nationally syndicated Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

CALLER: I guess we know now that you're voting for Bush because you said, “vote for the guy that Osama [bin Laden] doesn't want.” And then you just said Osama wants Kerry. So --

O'REILLY: No, no, no, no, no --

HILL: He argued both ways --

O'REILLY: No, we can argue it both ways. But I was speculating on the silence of Al Qaeda.

HILL: Well, he argues one thing and then he leaves it to me to argue the other.

O'REILLY: Yeah.

HILL: So, we get both sides of the --

O'REILLY: I don't -- look. I will say to my audience that I'm not gonna say who I vote for, ever.

Yet the full context of the endorsement to which the caller was responding indicates that the closest O'Reilly and Hill came to arguing “both sides” was Hill's observation that “Well, I think you could argue both sides.” Again, from the October 26 Radio Factor:

O'REILLY: OK. You know, when I think about this election it really comes down to the fact that Americans are in a position where they have to vote their gut. You gotta vote your gut. Intellect -- you've heard it. Emotion -- among the partisans -- it's absolutely out of control on both sides. People are just -- they're angry, they're energized -- you know it's all over the place.

But when you go in, if you are not a partisan, if you're not 100 percent sure, you've gotta vote your gut -- you know? Whoever you feel in your heart is the most sincere guy -- that's how you have to go.

You know, I made these comments that -- figure out who Osama bin Laden would vote for, you vote for the other guy?

HILL: Uh-huh.

O'REILLY: And it's impossible to know, however I think that point was made on The Factor last night, that's a very strong point. [O'Reilly is apparently referring to FOX News Channel political analyst Dick Morris, who made this point on The Radio Factor the previous day] If Al Qaeda wanted to disrupt the election they could, by doing something -- blowin' up an embassy -- you know ... anything.

HILL: Uh-huh.

O'REILLY: They don't wanna disrupt this election. They don't wanna do anything --

HILL: But you can see it from both ways.

O'REILLY: Yeah, but you know I think -- I think that --

HILL: You can see that, if John Kerry --

O'REILLY: I'm gonna go out on a limb. I think they fear Bush more than Kerry -- Al Qaeda.

HILL: Well, I think you could argue both sides.

O'REILLY: Yeah, but I'm --

HILL: If Kerry is elected, they could -- they could theorize that he's gonna go to France --

O'REILLY: Maybe --

HILL: Or Germany, and everything's gonna go --

O'REILLY: Mobilize everybody --

HILL: Well, it's gonna go back to --

O'REILLY: But I don't think --

HILL: Status quo -- and back to --

O'REILLY: I think Al Qaeda's smart enough to know that the Europeans have no guts. And, they never have and they never will. It's a soft society -- a socialistic society, a non-confrontational society.

HILL: So, if they attack now wouldn't people then say, “Oh, Bush didn't protect us”?

O'REILLY: No, if Al Qaeda attacks tomorrow, Bush wins big.

HILL: Why?

O'REILLY: Because he'll get t'd [ticked] off, and he'll go -- I'm gonna go with the guy who's hardest.

HILL: You could argue -- “Well, he wasn't hard enough -- try the other guy.”

O'REILLY: No, you could do it, but it's not gonna matter.