Can Oprah Deliver Votes for Obama?

You'd better believe it.

Barack and Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey in South Carolina in December.
(Photo: Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times)

From The New York Times Politics Blog:

On Sunday, Oprah Winfrey is returning to the presidential campaign trail to headline a California event for Senator Barack Obama. The Obama campaign has yet to announce details, but people familiar with the event say the television talk show magnate will join Michelle Obama at a campaign rally in the Los Angeles area.

The goal? Closing the gap with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in California before Tuesday’s primary. The target? Women voters.

It has been nearly two months since Ms. Winfrey made her debut on the trail, drawing tens of thousands of people to arenas in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Mr. Obama won Iowa and South Carolina, which aides attribute to the attention stirred by Ms. Winfrey. (Particularly the landslide South Carolina victory.)

Ms. Winfrey has not played a role in Mr. Obama’s television advertising campaign and has been out of the political spotlight since that weekend in December., when she strode onto a stage in Des Moines, declaring: “Oh my goodness. At last, I’m here.”

“I’ve been in contact with her consistently,” Mr. Obama said aboard his campaign plane the other day, “and she’s open to helping out in any ways that she can.”

Mark Halperin, writing at Time in November, argued that Oprah wouldn't help Obama's campaign because she doesn't bring much to the campaign that Obama doesn't already have:

To win the Democratic nomination for President, Barack Obama still needs the same thing he has needed all along — for voters to see him as ready to be commander in chief by January 2009. So now the question is: Will appearing at weekend campaign rallies with Oprah Winfrey help him achieve that goal?

Mark me down as more than a bit skeptical.

Winfrey's endorsement — and her announcement that she will appear with Obama at campaign events in Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire on December 8 and 9 — helps bring the following four things to Obama: campaign cash, celebrity, excitement and big crowds.

The four things that Obama has on his own in great abundance — without Winfrey's help — are campaign cash, celebrity, excitement and big crowds.

Halperin may have a point -- when it comes to the rational, unemotional voter.  But what about the large numbers of Democratic party voters out there who aren't sure what they think?  Remember, a big part of the Democratic party's base is young voters -- that is, voters who (politically speaking) were born yesterday.  They don't know their own minds.  Will Oprah help them sort out who they support?  Absolutely. 

Oprah is also a successful, appealing role model for many women of all ages.  I certainly admire her business success and have always found her to be likeable.  Part of Oprah's appeal is that she is not generally too strident in matters political.  You get the feeling that her primary goal is to do right by her audience.  If she misleads them politically, she does so in good faith. 

That, oddly enough, is why I believe Oprah will help Obama even on the national security issue.  She can't give Obama credentials he lacks, but she can implicitly lend Obama her own confidence and trustworthiness by standing by him.  That's what people need:  the feeling that the nation will not fall apart if they put this man in the White House. 

While taking political advice from a talk show host may seem like a silly idea to logical voters -- and it is -- there are plenty of Oprah admirers who will do just that.

Comments

[Paul-Williams]

Unless Oprah--who I love and adore--can tell me why Mr. Obama sided with banks to charge me whatever interest rates and fees they desire...why his plan for health care does not mandate it for all Americans, and why he is so reluctant to speak anout the issues that primarily affect black people for fear of being labled a "Black Candidate," her voice will have zero impact on how I vote. Rhetoric can lead to action in the very vain that inspiration can lead to change. However, before we can sunder the injustice of "RED" or the discrimination, a desire embrace to mediocrity, drug abuse, poor education and AIDS that cast an halow in BLUE, Mr. Obama must first acknowledge that which prevents red and blue from being "UNITED, Mr. Obama must asssign import to the problems of all Americans, including the group that most resemble him.

[will]

If you want to see funny animated skits with Oprah And Obama Go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=W5Kboa7kSjU