Political Review – realoutlook.com

In her first political appearance Oprah Winfrey addressed Iowa’s voters beaconing them to embrace a new vision of America with Barack Obama. There is no doubt that Obama’s star has been on the rise recently while the other Democratic presidential candidates languish in a sea of negativity. But how much is Oprah contributing to this trend?

Oprah is a very powerful media presence and has demonstrated her powers of persuasion. Reporters asked questions that insinuated she perhaps believed she could influence a voters decision about a candidate as she has about the books her viewers buy. Without hesitation she replied

“I am not here to tell you what to think. I am here to ask you to think, seriously. I want you to think seriously about a man who knows who we are and he knows who we can be. I’m not here for partisan beliefs. Over the years, I’ve voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats, so this isn’t about partisanship for me. This is very very personal. I am here for my personal conviction about Barack Obama and what I know he can do about America.”

But, in reality, that’s exactly what she hopes to do.

Oprah avoided anything pertaining to any specifics about policy while developing a definite theme centered around escaping Beltway Politics as usual to embrace the new; namely the unexperienced first term Senator from Illinois:

“Experience in the hallways on government isn’t as important to me as the pathway of life. So I challenge you to see through those people who try to convince you that experience with politics as usual in Washington is more valuable than ‘wisdom’ won from years of serving people outside the walls of Washington DC.”

Whether the throngs of Oprah fans were buying the rhetoric or not they hung on every word and applauded every phrase.

More interesting than Oprah’s support of Obama was the response from other leaders in the race for the Democratic nomination after it was announced that Oprah would be appearing with Obama in Iowa Friday, December 7th, followed by appearances in New Hampshire on Saturday and South Carolina on Sunday. Supporters of John Edwards were quick to call the appearance of Oprah a “publicity stunt.” Hillary’s campaign continued leaking tidbits about Obama’s youthful transgressions he himself admitted to in his book.

Meanwhile, Edwards received an endorsement from Harry Belafonte whose other political connections include Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Clinton was endorsed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome whose personal transgressions only serve to remind voters the baggage she carries with Bill Clinton as a husband. And rolling Bill out to make misstatements about Hillary’s and his own policy positions only reminds one of his mangled Grand Jury testimony. Even if no one listens to Oprah’s recommendations it’s hard not to notice the company one keeps. And being in the company of Oprah is truly hard to beat. Particularly for Clinton and Edwards who are looking in all the wrong places.

As the other candidates regurgitate statements about Obama’s inexperience they remind us of their own bad experience. Edwards continues to badger “Big Corporations, Big Oil and Big Energy” hoping we’ll look past big trial lawyers and bad medical malpractice suits. Hillary hopes we’ll tire of calls to release archives held at her husbands Presidential Library documenting bad behavior while First Lady. Perhaps if the other Democrats were our only alternative come November I’d hear Oprah’s call to “… dream America anew again by supporting Barack Obama.” [ro_24]

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 1:16 am and is filed under Election, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.