Bill O'Reilly factors Utah in

Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly, the host of best-rated show on cable news, will step out from behind a video camera on Nov. 14 for a highly anticipated Utah speech that should raise some eyebrows, whether your politics run liberal or conservative.

But, then again, the 60-year-old host never is one to shy away from controversy or the spotlight. Most people consider him to be conservative, though he can often stray from the dogmatic principles of the movement.

O'Reilly, author of eight best-selling books, has hosted the political commentary program "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel since 1996, and has become such a cult of personality that he has inspired a top-rated parody, "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.

Here is O'Reilly on his upcoming Huntsman Center speech, the president's war on the Fox News Channel, and his impression of former Utah politicians:

Coming to Utah for a speech » I do these once a month, and I try to visit places I haven't been for a while. I like to get the tempo of the country, to see what the folks are interested in, we do Q and A. That helps me in the sense of what's on their minds. As far as coming in and speaking, we do a State of the Union situation where we come in and say, look, here's what's going on and it's all geared to what influences your life directly. I don't talk about theory or ideology. It's a lot different from a TV show in the sense that it's much more casual, [an] off-the-cuff

President Barack Obama's war with Fox News Channel » Well, I think that is over. I think there's been detente. As I said from the jump, if the Obama administration has a beef about anything on FNC, the best thing to do would be to come right to "The Factor," we'll put them right on that night, and they can say what their beef is. That's how to handle it. They'll get a fair shot from me. When I interviewed them, it was a fair interview, they were happy with it, we were happy with it. So that's the way to handle it. The other stuff becomes the sideshow -- it helped us, no doubt. Why they want to waste their time on stuff like that is a mystery to me.

Former Gov. Jon Huntsman's appointment as ambassador to China » Huntsman's a good guy. We liked him when we approached him on Jessica's Law. He was very responsive to it, the guys got it done quickly. We thought he ran the state efficiently. Ambassador to China is a big job: Remember that Bush the elder had that job. If you have a national aspiration, [being an] ambassador to China doesn't hurt. Now, what Barack Obama's motive was for putting Huntsman in a chair over in Beijing, I don't know. I mean, let's give Obama the benefit of the doubt that he wanted the best guy over there.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's chances for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 » We like Gov. Romney. He's accessible, he answers the questions, and that's all we want politicians to do. I think he had a hard time getting people to pay attention to him, which is never easy. A person like Sarah Palin comes out of the box and right away she's glamorous and she's kind of controversial, so she's going to get all of the attention. Romney's kind of a traditional politician and doesn't throw a lot of bombs. He looks the part. People just didn't get a handle on him. He's got to figure that out the next time around -- I do believe he'll go for it again -- he's got to figure out an angle to set himself apart from the field. And I can't say what that is. I do think [religion] is important, but I don't think it will hold you back if you can define yourself in a way [where] people aren't suspicious. There are people who are suspicious of Mormons and I think it's ridiculous, but that does exist. You know, he basically has to go out of our way to try to counter that.