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BOR has no true ideological core. He blows with the wind because he is a blowhard. His ego knows no boundaries. Since Beck arrived on the scene and is stealing a lot of BOR’s thunder, he has gotten very competitive with Beck, a bit snarky, a bit backbiting, and is looking over his shoulder afraid of the competition of a younger and vastly more intelligent man.

BOR, for having been a Harvard man, which he reminds us of just about every week, is intellectually lazy. He obviously does little to no research, as he is always unprepared when he has guests on who are prepared, and tries to cover it up by cracking silly jokes at inappropriate times in the conversation, which is whenever he doesn’t know what the guest is talking about,because he doesn’t prepare for his own show.

If BOR has a research team, they are either lousy at it, or he doesn’t listen to anything they tell him about a given subject. Don’t know which. Plus he is either politically naive, or just a contrarian, or politically stupid, or all of the above. BOR needs to do his homework, but I think he thinks he doesn’t have to and can just coast. That is, until Beck came along to give him a run for his money. Now BOR is on the horns of a dilemma, as he really doesn’t want to work that hard for his paycheck, but the comparison between Beck who is always ready with facts and figures, and himself is glaringly obvious. One is prepared, the other isn’t.

BOR reminds me a lot of Ed Sullivan from the old Ed Sullivan variety show in days of yore. BOR, like Ed, really doesn’t have much of a schtick other than introducing his vastly more informed guests (in Ed’s case, his more talented guests), and then let them fill do their thing. Notice how many guests BOR has on as compared to Glenn Beck? Glenn Beck can talk intelligently on just about any given subject, virtually unscripted, and for long periods of time. BOR can’t because again, he is intellectually lazy. Perhaps he’s just too old now to want to make the effort. Probably feels he’s paid his dues and now just wants to coast till he retires.

BOR can be funny and witty and he does have a good banter line he falls back on. He is very clever to feed off of other’s notoriety in his choice of guests, and has lots of other popular Fox commentators on every nite; he uses them more than anyone else on Fox. Not sure why. Keeps expenses down, showcases Fox’s other stars, makes BOR look benevolent towards younger up and comers, mentoring them, so to speak, or because they have talents that can make him look good. He alternatively jokes with them, teases them, or bullies them, depending on his mood and his desire to override whatever they say with condescending commentary of his own, or cuts them off with his final and correct, he adds, opinion.

I guess we all end up taking BOR as he is, a mixed bag. He does mix it up on his show with a variety of segments that keeps his show moving along. I enjoy many of his guests, and he is topical with his choices of subject matter. He has that Irish charm and humor when he wants to trot it out. He’s hard to avoid as he has the prime evening time slot. He does make Fox a lot of $$$$$$. He maintains the highest ratings (although Beck is now beating him periodically, even though he is not prime time). BOR’s jealously of Beck is now obvious, and he tries to horn in on Beck’s investigations to claim some reflected glory for himself, which is a very unattractive trait.

Bottom line, I watch his show in spite of myself, and I suppose I will continue to do so, as I generally cook my dinner at that time, using his show as background banter.
However, I must admit he’s been giving me a case of indigestion of late, so I think I’ll do my meal one hour earlier, when I watch Larry Kudlow on CNBC (he’s quite conservative, an eternal Reagan-like optimist and has a financial show) rather than getting an even bigger case of indigestion watching Shep Smith on Fox (the drama queen)who is on at the same time. Larry has good panels, his show is quite similar to Cavuto’s, and he has some interesting guests. A few nites ago, Pat Boone was on one of his panels. Try him, you might like him.