With the rise of Rep. Ron Paul in Iowa throwing the entire Republican 2012 field once again for a loop– and new polls showing Mitt Romney virtually tied with President Obama should he win the nomination, the vulnerability of the incumbent President is a question on everyone’s minds, particularly against any specific candidate rather than “generic Republican.” On tonight’s “Great American Panel” on Hannity, the panel (led by guest host Monica Crowley) evaluated the chances of a strong Republican general election, despite the “scorched earth” campaigns going on today.

With the Herman Cain candidacy increasingly in jeopardy, on tonight’s program Bill O’Reilly asked guests Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley to gauge the rest of the field, of which neither seemed particularly excited. In discussing the lack of emotion surrounding Rick Perry, O’Reilly argued that Cain and Rep. Ron Paul had the “most emotional support,” particularly the latter, whose supporters he compared to “bees.”

As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to refuse to budge from lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, tonight on the O’Reilly Factor resident media critic Bernie Goldberg took a look at how the media has treated the movement. Ultimately, he gives guest host Monica Crowley a grim prognosis for the media’s chances at being fair towards the movement in the same way they were (or were not) to the Tea Party: arguing that “the storyline is set in stone,” he concludes “there is no hope for them.”

Fans of The Five can throw their hands in the air (perhaps even waving them like they just don’t care) and rejoice to the news that Fox News has announced that the 5pm panel show has become a permanent fixture on the cable news dial, thus increasing the chances that we will one day see the Bob Beckel/Eric Bolling fist fight we’re all so eagerly awaiting.

President Obama is facing plenty of questions from constituents as he travels the Midwest on his jobs bus tour this week, and in answering for the current state of the economy seems to have mentioned everything from the economic impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March to simple “bad luck.” Needless to say, conservatives aren’t buying it. On last night’s O’Reilly Factor, Charles Krauthammer blasted the President, calling him, among other things, “pathetic,” and calling his claims against Republicans “ironic, hypocritical, [and] offensive.”

The hiring of Al Sharpton as host over at MSNBC has raised many an eyebrow given his past as businessman, activist, and host. But at Fox News, it appears to be inspiring nothing but ridicule. On today’s Fox News Watch, the panel discussed what could have possibly convinced MSNBC to hire him (the answers included “quid pro quo” and “ideology”), but ended on this anticlimactic note: “Why does anybody listen to Al Sharpton?”

It seemed like kind of a sleepy news day today. So sleepy that Bob Beckel spent the entire last segment on Fox News’ The Five playing video poker on his cell phone. Even when the show was covering a story about a Department of Homeland Security video that featured all white actors playing the terrorists (a perfect Fox News story if I ever heard one), only guest host Monica Crowley seemed to have the energy to muster up the expected outrage. However, there may have been one notable part of that segment as Beckel seems to have accidentally dropped the F-bomb.

An investigation by Roll Call suggests Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann may have used taxpayer dollars to pay for Tea Party rallies and for speakers at anti-Obama events. The subject was discussed on Fox Business Network’s The Willis Report where even if there was doubt regarding whether Bachmann violated any House rules, all on the panel seemed in agreement that Bachmann needs to be very careful moving forward.

Tonight has not exactly been a pleasant night for Ed Schultz, who temporarily ended his career at MSNBC tonight with a heartfelt apology to Laura Ingraham for calling her a “slut” twice on the radio. But he didn’t have the last say on the scandal of the night– that went to fellow Schultz victim Eric Bolling, who discussed the comments with his panel and even offered to “help” Schultz if his lashing out was a product of “drinking or doing drugs.”

Bill O’Reilly led off his show tonight confused why President Obama chose to spend Easter Sunday at the Shiloh Baptist Church, where its pastor Reverend Wallace Charles Smith had a history of making controversial statements, including alleging Fox News is racist. O’Reilly was none too pleased with Obama for legitimizing the pastor and was reminded of the Jeremiah Wright controversy. However, Alan Colmes passionately argued O’Reilly was completely wrong.

News broke today that the White House had told GOP leadership that it would not defend in a court of law the Defense of Marriage Act signed under President Clinton. The federal law defines marriage between a man and a woman, and had previously been defended by the Justice Department under previous administrations. This was the topic of conversation today on Fox News, and guest Monica Crowley told host Megyn Kelly that this decision was akin to a “dictatorship” calling the president “Mubarak Obama.”

Every Tuesday night on The O’Reilly Factor, political commentators Alan Colmes and Monica Crowley debate one another in an always entertaining “Barack and a Hard Place” segment. Given that the two are related (Colmes is married to Crowley’s sister) and both can play along with host Bill O’Reilly, this segment often seems like a fun family dinner where the participants don’t have to hold back and can say absolutely anything they want, because when the gloves come off, they all really like each other.

Television producers take note: the element of surprise is your greatest ally in creating compelling television. Case in point: Conservative commentator Monica Crowley predictably took the position that the real culprit in North Korea’s recent rogue behavior was a “weak” President Obama. Enter America Live host Megyn Kelly, bringing the pain to her guest’s rather obviously and overly political opinion, with sharply punctuated and exasperated “What?!”

Today is the 14th anniversary of Fox News’ launch, and Bill O’Reilly marked the occasion on the Factor tonight by playing an old clip of what was then the The O’Reilly Report – and taking some shots at the network’s competition (or lack thereof).

This week’s issue of Rolling Stone magazine features an interview with Barack Obama, in which the president says that Fox News has “a point of view that I disagree with,” continuing “It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country.” Bill O’Reilly addressed this issue in his “Barack and a Hard Place” segment with Monica Crowley and Alan Colmes last night, and was surprisingly tolerant and understanding of Obama’s frustration with Fox News.

Speculation that Hillary Clinton may make a run for President in 2012 is a meme that just won’t die. And while President Obama‘s poll numbers and popularity continue their downward spiral one imagine the media will continue to invoke the specter of Candidate Hillary. Behold today’s addition to the speculation.

O’Reilly Factor guest host Monica Crowley presided over quite a night on the show tonight, as they got an exclusive with ex-Dick Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby. It was Libby’s first interview since being convicted on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in 2007. As one might expect, Crowley didn’t exactly put Libby through the gauntlet.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll recently released shows that President Obama has lower approval ratings for his handling of the Gulf oil spill than President Bush had for his actions after Hurricane Katrina. It’s a bad place to be in the summer of a midterm election, as Bill O’Reilly noted last night, but while the President might still hope to bring back some swing voters, there is one population he is not going to convince to vote for him again: the pelicans.

A new organization called Crash the Tea Party is making headlines today after they released their plans to “infiltrate” Tea Party rallies and hold up offensive signs in an attempt to depict them as the “racists, homophobes, and morons” that the group thinks they are. Yesterday and today on Fox News, Megyn Kelly went after the group and tore them a new one. In doing so, she pointed out the obvious flaw in the group’s plan. Video of both segments after the jump.

“Culture wars” are a common topic on the O’Reilly Factor, but rarely does it get so personal as to call out fellow news anchors — but not last night. Monica Crowley, subbing for host Bill O’Reilly, quickly reminded viewers why she’s so popular with her conservative base. Last night, she went after Katie Couric, asking if Couric’s comments about an “angry nation” represented and “elite left-wing media looking down on Americans.” And that was just the beginning. Video after the jump: