Coming Soon to Fox News: Bill Clinton?

But Roger Ailes says he wouldn't work out as a regular talk show host
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 26, 2011 9:40 AM CST
Coming Soon to Fox News: Bill Clinton?
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the funeral mass for R. Sargent Shriver at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, Md., Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011.   (AP Photo/Cliff Owen/Pool)

Roger Ailes would love to have Bill Clinton host a talk show on Fox News—in theory. In actuality, "he won’t be as good on a talk show as you’d think," said Ailes, according to just-released transcripts from his interview with Esquire. "Because, first of all, he never shuts up. I mean, he cannot hit time cues.” Ailes did, however, offer Clinton a special, “which he is still thinking about. I’d love to have it.”

“The problem with him in a talk show mode is not that he’s not charming, good, smart and glib. He is. But he loves to talk about policy. He’s actually a policy wonk,” Ailes went on. “So if you really want eighteen minutes on ethanol, he’ll give it to you. So you have to be able to produce him and say, ‘Most people are not that interested in ethanol, Mr. President.'” (More Roger Ailes stories.)

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