Bill O’Reilly announced last night that a new Fox News poll showed President Obama with a 9-point lead over Mitt Romney. Bill O’Reilly, apparently stunned at the results, came up with an, uh, interesting explanation. It’s because so many Americans are on welfare.

As an introduction to his “Lou’s the Boss” segment with Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs, O’Reilly announced, “More than 100 million Americans are now receiving some kind of welfare other than Social Security or Medicare and that includes 36% of immigrant households, both legal and illegal. The highest group: Mexicans, 57% are on welfare – as opposed to immigrants from Great Britain. Just 6% of that group get payments from the feds.”

And in the spirit of “fairness and balance” I’m sure, O’Reilly trotted out virulent Hispanic-basher, Lou Dobbs.

O’Reilly (with Dobbs’ agreement) said that the statistics were so high because of “people who are gaming the system under the encouragement of the liberal Democratic Party which is tellin’ em, ‘You’re a sap if you don’t get this. Come on, go get that!’”