fox news producers had tried for years to get hillary clinton to come on the show. on april 30, 2008, clinton agreed to come on the show as part of a pre-taped interview that would be broadcast over two days. the host also held an exclusive, four-part interview with then-presidential candidate barack obama. both interviews drew significant media attention as they were front runners for the 2008 presidential election. in the same election cycle, ron paul and o'reilly got into a testy exchange over the issue of iran. the 2008 republican candidate for vice president, sarah palin, and then democratic vice president candidate joe biden were also invited to the show, but chose not to make an appearance.