Was Oprah The Decider?

[The Diest]

I am not a daytime tv watcher (can't be) but have always sorta felt that Oprah was the ultimate role model for women, for blacks, for the disadvantaged; Oprah is a magnificent American Story. She is also (in my opinion) incredibly intelligent, yet compassionate. This is what has made her so powerful and influential, and I have felt for some time that she is probably the most influential woman in the US.

So when she came out the day before Iowa and announced her support for Obama, all I could think was "Damn! That was brilliant, that was just genious strategically!" Noone had time to react to it, it was a gut thing, an inspired movement. All of those undecideds, hemming and hawing, so many candidates, sounding pretty similar, and WHAM! Then, you got it, Barack Obama, look at the votes he stole from Hillary, the candidate that supposedly "should" have received the women's

Obama 940 38% 25
Edwards 744 30% 6
Clinton 737 29% 14

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21660914#IA

Obama is a brilliant strategist, and so is Oprah. I have no idea if they worked together, but this outcome was certainly not predicted.

[Yael]

1. Either you have middle-aged white women as your 'demographic'

or you don't.

Pick one.

[flvegan]

2. If so, then I guess puppy mills will be out of business, yes?

I mean, if she can (help) steer an election...

[LeftyMom]

3. That's a bit silly. Women make their own decisions based on their own lives,

and while some of them may value her opinion, she certainly can't get them to do anything they wouldn't otherwise consider. She's a talk show host, not a cult leader (that Secret hogwash aside.)

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. Maybe she was...

...but I wonder if Bill might have unwittingly been pivotal in turning things for Obama -- I think his confrontive and very unpresidential style while stumping for Hillary may have alienated a lot more people than any of us know.

[JCMach1]

5. Yes, Oprah was critical to getting people to pay attention to Obama

However, I don't always trust her judgement.

Two words: DR. PHIL

[Tumbulu]

6. I think she was pivotal

When I heard that she had endorsed Obama I suspected that he would win the nomination. I heard all these pundits on NPR claiming that it would have little impact. I told one of my friends "yeah- you just watch" .

Today I saw her and said- "well, Oprah did it, didn't she?" and she smiled very broadly.

Don't ever underestimate the power of Oprah. Just Don't.

[earth mom]

7. Yes Oprah was key. This country is full of people who worship money & the cult of celebrity.

I think Oprah's influence has been ignored and dismissed the past several months around here because people refused to admit that Oprah had anything to do with Obama's campaign.

I'm disgusted with Oprah and I don't care what people think about that. Funny enough though, I used to want Oprah to run for president. :puke: