In the beginning, there was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a fire-breathing Chicago preacher who believes America is a bad place. The reverend and Barack Obama were friends for 20 years.

Radical Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, another Chicago cleric, was also part of the Obama neighborhood gang. Father Mike was the guy who mocked Hillary Clinton, portraying her as a white woman of entitlement.

Then there was Bill Ayers, a casual acquaintance of Obama's in Chicago. Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground, is unrepentant to this day about the group's violent activities in the 1960s.

Barack and Michelle Obama were also friends with Rashid Khalidi, a radical professor who routinely condemns Israel. Obama spoke at Khalidi's farewell dinner in Chicago, just before the professor took a job at Columbia University.

After being elected president, Obama appointed Carol Browner as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. Formerly, Browner was a leader in the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, a group that calls for "global governance." It is an arm of the Socialist International organization.

The president also hired Kevin Jennings as the safe schools czar. Jennings believes that sexual orientation lessons should begin in kindergarten.

And, of course, there is Van Jones. The president brought him into the White House to be the green jobs czar. Unfortunately, Jones has a radical-left resume that includes support for the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal.

He was forced to resign when the folks found out exactly how far out there the man really is.

Judge Edward Chen might be on a par with Jones. On Aug. 7, the president nominated Chen for a lifetime federal judgeship in San Francisco. Chen used to be a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, and just a few days after the terror attack on 9/11, Chen stated he had a "sickening feeling in (his) stomach about what might happen to race relations and religious tolerance on our own soil.

"One has to wonder whether the seemingly irresistible forces of racism, nativism and scapegoating which has (sic) recurred so often in our history can be effectively restrained."

Sounds a bit like the Rev. Wright, does it not?

So what does all this tell us about Obama? Some conservatives say it indicates that the president is a committed far-left guy. I'm not so sure.

What I am sure of is the Obama administration hates to be associated with the far left and will hammer anyone who makes the link. If you want the bottom line on the White House/Fox News controversy, that's it.

But it is important to understand the precincts in which the president feels comfortable, and there is no question that he has snuggled up to the far left.

Does that mean he's Che Guevara in disguise? Not necessarily. But it does mean Obama is somewhat out of step with mainstream America.

Bill O'Reilly is host of "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?"