Not obligatory on our part, mind you, but apparently on Barack Obama’s part. Why he agreed to do an interview with Fox and Bill O’Reilly is anyone’s guess, because he clearly wasn’t there to answer questions. Instead, we got this strange dance where both men almost continually interrupted each other, and the President of the United States claiming that every problem in his administration could be blamed on Fox News.

Hey. if that’s true, why did Obama give Fox the interview? Apparently, Obama can’t fire anyone.

For instance, here’s part of the exchange about Benghazi, which was a terror attack despite the White House’s initial insistence that it was a demonstration that spun out of control:

O’REILLY:  — but I just want to say that they’re — your detractors believe that you did not tell the world it was a terror attack because your campaign didn’t want that out.

OBAMA:  Bill, think about…

O’REILLY:  That’s what they believe.

OBAMA:  — and they believe it because folks like you are telling them that.

O’REILLY:  No, I’m not telling them that.

And here we have Obama’s answer on the IRS targeting of conservatives, which is again only a problem because of Fox News:

OBAMA:  I do not recall meeting with him in any of these meetings that are pretty routine meetings that we had.

O’REILLY:  OK, so you don’t — you don’t recall seeing Shulman, because what some people are saying is that the IRS was used…

OBAMA:  Yes.

O’REILLY:  — at a — at a local level in Cincinnati, and maybe other places to go after…

OBAMA:  Absolutely wrong.

O’REILLY:  — to go after.

OBAMA:  Absolutely wrong.

O’REILLY:  But how do you know that, because we — we still don’t know what happened there?

OBAMA:  Bill, we do — that’s not what happened.  They — folks have, again, had multiple hearings on this.  I mean these kinds of things keep on surfacing, in part because you and your TV station will promote them.

Finally, here’s part of an exchange in which Obama promises to hold people accountable for the failure of ObamaCare, but when O’Reilly notes that no one has lost their job yet, O’Reilly allows Obama to offer a couple of complete non-sequiturs:

OBAMA:  — and those who are underinsured are able to get better health insurance.

O’REILLY:  I’m sure — I’m sure that the intent is noble, but I’m a taxpayer.

OBAMA:  Yes.

O’REILLY:  And I’m paying Kathleen Sebelius’ salary and she screwed up.

OBAMA:  Yes.

O’REILLY:  And you’re not holding her accountable.

OBAMA:  Yes, well, I — I promise you that we hold everybody up and down the line accountable.  But when we’re…

O’REILLY:  But she’s still there.

OBAMA:  — when we’re in midstream, Bill, we want to make sure that our main focus is how do we make this thing work so that people are able to sign up?

And that’s what we’ve done.

O’REILLY:  All right.

Seriously, I don’t know why Obama bothered to do this interview at all. The only answer he seemed interested in sharing was that Fox News is a big Meany Channel with Meany Reporters who Keep Asking Questions When I Give The Only Answers I Want To Give. I’m not sure this is doing Fox any favors, either, other than some satisfaction over putting the President on a hot seat for a short period of time when most other news channels want to treat Obama like a celebrity. Anyway, watch the video, or perhaps just follow the link to the rest of the transcript instead. You’ll find it less frustrating.