A few comments about Oprah and Obama.
So yes, expect loud, rousing rallies in all three early voting states when Oprah Winfrey comes to town with her friend Barack Obama in early December, with gobs of media attention, raucous crowds, emotion and great pictures. But don’t expect those events to do anything productive to allow Obama to get over the biggest hurdle standing between him and the White House. American voters are not looking for a celebrity or talk show sidekick to lead them. Obama is an intelligent and thoughtful potential President, but Winfrey’s imprimatur is unlikely to convey those traits to many undecided voters.
In that respect, Winfrey’s events might even be — dare it be said — counterproductive.[1]
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This Oprah-palooza is a big test for her famous power to bring in women, particularly white women. White women are, of course, the basis of her great success.
She is also, obviously, a black woman and she is also trying to pry black votes from Hillary Clinton. So she is telling her female audience don’t buy that solidarity thing and vote for a woman — Hillary — but telling black people do buy the solidarity thing and vote for the black man.
It’s tricky, but I predict she’ll get away with it [2]
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“I’m not lying, I came here to see Oprah. I know nothing about him,” said Sandy Beasley, 43, of Amherst. “Everybody wants to see Oprah.” [3]
And check out this video. CNN has a report of a poll that Oprah could have a negative effect.
So my question: has Oprah helped or hurt Obama? Or, has she had no effect?
Inquiring minds want to know 😉
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
The answer may depend on whether you mean help or hurt in the short run, or the long run. As we’ve seen many times — what works for a candidate in the primaries can work against them in the general election. It might also be said that what works in one state’s primary may not in the next.
Traditionally, celebrity endorsements and campaign appearances gain publicity but don’t have much impact on voters. Oprah Winfrey is a celebrity, but she’s an unusual celebrity. Barack Obama is also an unusual candidate in many respects. His chief rival, Hillary Clinton, is also an unusual candidate.
So, I say — who knows? The pundits are just guessing. We’re in uncharted waters.
My gut feeling is that Oprah is helping Obama at this point. And, I will guess that down the road her participation will continue to help him, unless it’s overdone.
Oprah is a great person and can only help the campaign.
My vote’s still for Hillary, though. 🙂
VIP’s with name recognition can get folks to turn out, just as the Oprah events have shown. Once the people are “in the room” it’s up to the candidate to convince and motivate the audience.
My vote is Oprah helps Obama because he is able to convince and motivate audiences.
I suspect the same people who are concerned that Oprah will hurt Obama are the same people who are “concerned” that America isn’t ready for a black President. [sarcasm]Not that they, themselves, feel that way, mind you. [sarcasm off]
Are you ()*#@#@ kidding me? Any politician in his/her right mind would *kill* for an Oprah endorsement. She’s better known than you are, better liked than you are, and is probably a better public speaker than you. (and that that statement almost certain works no matter who “you” are.)
All Obama needs to worry about here is Oprah accidentally promising everyone at the next rally a new car or something.
To me, Oprah is irrelevant. No celebrity endorsement can give a candidate experience. Assuming I vote in the Democratic primary, my vote will go to Richardson.
I think Oprah can bring much needed visibility to Obama. However, I stay hopeful that people will not vote based on what a TV celebrity says. I agree in the overall scheme of serious politics, Oprah is irrelevant. But, let’s remember, there is an enitre segment of the population that are loyal Oprah followers that will simply fall in line and vote like they are instructed. I really hope that we can keep Hillary and the crackpot Clinton politics out of our White House. I think more people are ocncerned with Hillary’s policies than with Obama’s skin color. The past few weeks have been excellent for him. And I think that Hillary and her traveling circus are surprised. They truly thought this was simply going to be a coronation. This going to be interesting! I’m holding off committing to any candidate, there is too much good stuff to come!
I can’t see this hurting. Helping? Celebrity endorsements are good for raising money and drawing crowds. They may swing a handful of votes but in a close race a handful of votes is nothing to scoff at.
The endorsements I am waiting for (unless I have missed them) are the big three Democrats: Kennedy, Kerry and Gore. My guess is Kennedy and Kerry, given their leadership positiions in the Senate, will go for Clinton. She is the establishment candidate and for the time being seems the likely candidate. Gore, on the other hand, doesn’t owe anyone anything and can afford to gamble. I always sensed a little friction between him and the Clintons so I don’t think sentimentality or loyalty is a factor. If he endorsed Clinton and she won he would be one of a thousand other people who endorsed her. However, if he endorsed Obama and Obama won, Gore would be looked at as a kingmaker (or something close to it). We’ll see.
Oprah helps.
hill is falling like a rock, with three weeks to go she can attaxck all day long but that proves she is in trouble, she is the bob dole of the dems.
Hillary has consistently had trouble with a significant percentage of white women voters with college and advanced degrees (including Democrats) who are skeptical about her candidacy. An Oprah endorsed alternative gives them political cover they may feel that they need in order to vote “against” an “historic first” woman candidate.
Those who attended the event overwhelmingly indicated that they were there for Oprah, not Obama.
Although I do not hink Oprah hurts Obama, I DO believe that Obama hurts Oprah. She has just divided her audience… She has even divided her liberal fans.
Obama wins if he promises to appoint her to some position. Hillary WILL appoint her celebrity, Bill, to a position and that helps her.
The only way world leaders will take Hillary’s calls is if Bill is the UN Ambas. or the Sec. of State.
The comments here are interesting. But there is one part of this that I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned: race. Here’s a comment from one of the message boards on Oprah’s website:
Interestingly enough, I was talking to one of my sisters yesterday (a non-political) and she said something very similar. She said she thought Oprah was supporting Obama, not because he’s the most qualified, but because he’s black. And she felt that was a bad strategy on Oprah’s part.
Better yet, look at this.
I think that we will find out that some of these negative posters are from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. I have heard nothing but rapt enthusiasm about Oprah’s endorsement. Basically, the ground shifted with her active support of Obama. Many, many people trust her judgment, wisdom, and good intentions.
I noticed that EVERY SINGLE COMMENTER on the question of Oprah’s influence on the network news, CNN, and MSNBC was male. Two of the three articles cited above were written by men. The third was written by a man and a woman. What, you can’t find any women on the network news or cable channels or newspapers to address the question of what women think of Oprah’s involvement? I really thought we had come a little farther than that. Not that men are disqualified, but even if the stories were randomly assigned, there should have been plenty of women to address this question.
I think Clare Gastanaga was right when she said that a significant percentage of educated women voters do not like Hillary. Count me among them. It’s not a “historic first” when your main claim to fame is that you decided to “stand by your man” and let him walk all over you and humiliate you, publicly. Please, spare us the sister act. I don’t need any kind of political cover to feel that way, either. Hillary Clinton is very, very smart and very qualified, but she would not be my first choice. I teach my daughter to stand up for herself, and I think public figures should serve as an example to reinforce the values we teach our kids.
I’d like to think help. However, I find myself agreeing with Stephen in his post. She definitely helped with crowds and raising $$.
I think she may firm up support for those who are leaning and perhaps sway a few undecideds.
When I worked for Bradley, we had Michael Jordan cut an ad for us. Due to his schedule he wasn’t able to do events and we thought the ad would help- it got some press but didn’t really help (the campaign was faultering anyway and Gore definitely had the big “Mo”.)
I don’t think there has ever been a celebrity this big ever endorse a candidate (the only one I could think of was Sinatra supporting Kennedy).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I really thought only a few weeks ago that Hilary had the nomination locked up. Same with Guiliani on the GOP side.