Oprah and Obama

Oprah Winfrey is powerful.

She has a lot of weight to throw around; and she decided to use her influence to get out early and often to campaign for Barack Obama.

It's interesting that Oprah is jumping into '08 politics as this stage in the game, given her history of sitting out primaries.

Oprah, we know you are a busy woman, being a media mogul and everything, but don't you think you could vote in a presidential primary once in a while?
You haven't cast a ballot in a presidential primary since 1988, a detail we might have completely glossed over if you hadn't started raising money for Barack Obama's primary campaign. You even allowed the wealthy to trample your meadow grass last night during an Obama fund-raiser at your Santa Barbara mansion. Despite your fancy digs in California, you've been registered to vote in Chicago, and it wouldn't take much to slip on a pair of your "Favorite Things" slippers and saunter on down from your Water Tower Place condo at 180 E. Pearson to your assigned polling spot at 222 E. Pearson. To make it easier, we even drew a map for you.

Once there, you can cast your vote, privately, just the way you like it, in the building's lobby. Then you can trot back home to your high-rise and play with your dogs. You could wear a hat and big glasses, but ditch the security guards because that's a real tipoff to fans who may be lying in wait for a glimpse of the daytime diva.

All this is not to take away from your perfect attendance during the presidential elections. You have a robust voting record in those contests, but you only voted in Illinois primaries in 1994 and 2002. How could you miss a chance to participate in the democratic process? Making a difference is supposed to be what you're about.

I suspect Oprah's presidential primary voting drought will end when she gets an opportunity to vote for her man Barack Obama to be the Democrat nominee for president.

She would be the worst role model imaginable if she didn't. Oprah needs to walk the walk.

Throwing lavish, star-studded parties for Obama isn't enough, though she has done a lot for the Illinois senator.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

"I haven't been actively engaged before because there hasn't been anything to be actively engaged in. But I am engaged now to make Barack Obama the next president of the United States," a source said Winfrey told the crowd just before the concert, starring Stevie Wonder.

Introducing Obama, Winfrey said that "nobody can stand in the way of destiny."

"It's unbelievable," said Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias as the Great Gatsby party scene unfolded before him on Winfrey's meadow under a gorgeous sky. Real celebrities mingled with Obama's best donors and bundlers rewarded for their fund-raising efforts with a star-studded afternoon.

Among those present at the event featuring two of the most famous Chicagoans in the world: actors Lou Gossett Jr.; Cicely Tyson; Forest Whitaker; Ellen Pompeo; Sidney Poitier; Linda Evans; Tyler Perry; Chris Rock; Hill Harper (who attended Harvard Law with Obama); music producer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds; Holly Robinson Peete and her husband, football quarterback Rodney Peete; Winfrey beau Stedman Graham; radio personality Tom Joyner; sports legends Ernie Banks, Bill Russell and Dave Winfield; tennis great Jimmy Connors, and model Cindy Crawford and husband Rande Gerber.

There was a contingent from Obama's Chicago-based kitchen Cabinet, including Habitat honcho Valerie Jarrett and John Rogers, the Illinois finance co-chairman.
The most important VIPs got to drive right up to the mansion, with most of the estimated 1,500 attendees who either gave or raised $2,300 shuttled by bus to Winfrey's from the Earl Warren Showgrounds eight miles away in Santa Barbara.

At 3 p.m., there was Oprah/ Obama gridlock on the Highway 101 Las Positas off-ramp leading to the staging area. Two women wearing leis waiting in the traffic jam said they flew in from Hawaii for the event. Judge Greg Mathis, who presides over the "Judge Mathis" show taped in Chicago, was in line, idling in his convertible Mercedes SL500.

Security was tight. The event was closed to the press. At the showgrounds, people dressed out of the pages of Vogue and GQ, despite the admonition to wear "garden attire," were delivered in limos and sharp cars. Everyone had to give up cameras as they went through security. A reporter trying to interview people on the showgrounds was threatened with arrest.

Oprah's good at raising money and money does matter.

Putting $3 million into the hands of a candidate sort of runs counter to Oprah's image as a philanthropist.

I suppose she thinks that propping up Obama's campaign is a more worthy undertaking than using those millions of dollars to directly help suffering people.

Whatever.

It's undeniable that Obama having Oprah on his side is beneficial in terms of money. But is it beneficial in terms of delivering votes?

I don't think so.
Read about the Oprah Factor.

Her syndicated program reaches 8.4 million viewers, her Web site has 2.3 million unique visitors monthly, and her monthly magazine has 2 million readers, all looking to be entertained and informed and, yes, sometimes led.

Oprah's legions are dwarfed by those of conservative radio talkers.

And even her most ardent supporters don't always follow.

What's often lost in the slack-jawed admiration of Oprah's hold over her flock is perhaps the greatest secret of her success. She is selling something she senses her followers already want: It's all about feeling better about oneself.

...But people who vote for Oprah because it feels good may not do the same for a politician.

It's not as though she can sell anything. That's the lesson of "Beloved."

Winfrey poured all she could into that 1998 film. She said in interviews that to immerse herself in the role of Sethe, she had herself blindfolded, abandoned in the woods and forced to hear racial taunts and threats to simulate slavery. "It was raw, raw, raw pain," she told Time magazine at the time.

The film's reported budget was more than $50 million. The U.S. box office? Less than $30 million.

Sometimes, as Homer Simpson has said, "trying is the first step toward failure."

Another thing to keep in mind--

Oprah did have Bill Clinton on her show about a week ago.

Although Hillary hasn't been around yet, she hasn't totally abandoned the Clintons.

If reality manages to get in the way of destiny and Obama, as I suspect it will, I doubt that Oprah would avoid Hillary and stay on the political sidelines for '08.

And Hillary doesn't mind being one's second or third or fourth choice.

Other than the money she can raise, I still don't think Oprah will matter.