Beck, O'Reilly fire up crowd at Tampa appearance

When Fox News Channel hosts Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck took the stage at the University of South Florida Sun Dome tonight, they received standing ovations, applause and cheers befitting rock stars.

Their main topic, President Barack Obama and his policies, got boos.

The audience of about 8,000 attending the first show at 4 p.m. savored every chance to voice their displeasure with Obama while hanging on every word from the two pundits at the forefront of the popular conservative movement.

The "O'Reilly/Beck Bold & Fresh Tour" was designed to be a live extension of both hosts' television shows, sprinkled with routines of stand-up comedy.

Beck appeared first to raucous applause. He wasted no time commenting on Obama's town hall meeting at the University of Tampa on Thursday.

"Two thousand people showed up for the president," Beck said. "He had 1,000 inside and the other 1,000 were protestors."

Shouts sprang from the Sun Dome crowd, a mostly white audience ranging in age from elementary school children with their parents to the elderly.

"What I really like about Obama . . ." Beck continued, only to be cut off by a man who yelled, "Nothing!"

Beck smiled and finished: "It's his deep sense of humility. He is truly a piece of . . . work."

As he took his shots at Obama and big government, Beck interspersed anecdotes about his family life: how fast his daughter is growing up, how he and his children got into a Nerf gun fight over the holidays.

After about 45 minutes, it was O'Reilly's turn.

With the crowd on its feet as soon as he appeared, O'Reilly immediately mentioned Sami Al-Arian, the former USF professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to aiding terrorists.

"I remember Sami," O'Reilly said. "I got him in trouble. I kind of felt bad. He was a nice-looking little guy."

Applause rang out when he referred to Chicago's south side, where Obama was once a community activist, and how that part of the city was like Haiti.

"We keep pumping money into it and nothing happens," O'Reilly said.

The host of "The O'Reilly Factor" said he doesn't dislike the president.

"There's a philosophical difference between Obama and me," O'Reilly said. "And it's interesting to see how the country has turned on Obama."

The turning point, O'Reilly said, was Obama's "health-care thing."

"Regulate the ones we have," O'Reilly said of existing insurance companies. "Let them compete in all 50 states. Have you tried to renew your driver's license lately? I don't want those people selling me insurance."

O'Reilly and Beck give a voice to a majority of Americans frustrated with big government but too skittish to speak up, said Evan Eastman, 19.

"What they're saying is relevant," said Eastman, a member of the USF College Republicans. "They're making people stop and think about today's policies."

June Vallario of Fort Lauderdale, a regular viewer of O'Reilly's show, said she was vacationing at Disney World when she found out about the "Bold & Fresh Tour." She didn't hesitate to buy a ticket.

"He's terrific," Vallario, 72, said of O'Reilly. "Everything he said is right."

There were a handful of protestors at the Sun Dome before the 4 p.m. show began, including a few anarchists and people supporting an independent Palestinian nation.

Traffic along Fowler Avenue was snarled at all three entrances to the USF campus about an hour before the first show started; the second show began at 8 p.m. and traffic slowdowns and congestion are expected to continue.