Another Oprah Winfrey Presents Production

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 07:14:10 PM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, 2008, Oprah Winfrey (all tags)

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Here comes Oprah Winfrey, all weekend long, beating the drum for Barack Obama, in South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire.

It's now a stadium event in South Carolina. Can "the nation's wealthiest African-American woman" have an impact on the voters of a poor state like South Carolina? The race card is already in play. African American supporters of John Edwards are calling the Oprah-Obama tour a publicity stunt.

More...

Prominent African-American supporters of John Edwards accused Barack Obama on Friday of performing a "publicity stunt" by bringing Oprah Winfrey to South Carolina and other early presidential primary states, saying that blacks won't vote for Obama just because of his race.

"John Edwards has committed himself to making rural communities' infrastructure a priority rather than have a celebrity come in," said South Carolina state Rep. Leon Howard. "It's insulting for anyone to think that African-Americans are automatically onboard with Barack Obama."

Who's the star, Oprah or Obama? Clearly it's Oprah. People will turn out in droves to see her, but I doubt it means they'll buy the candidate she's selling.

A small glitch in New Hampshire: The Obama campaign picked a non-union arena. They've worked it out though -- the details aren't disclosed but the article says the deal was probably no picket lines in exchange for Obama saying something pro-union at the event.

Here's Oprah. Also check out this hilarious SNL skit of her working her over-the-top audience.

< The Writers' Stike: Speechless | Hillary Brings Mom and Chelsea, Rolls Out Buddy System in Iowa >

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Another Oprah Winfrey Presents Production | 17 comments (17 topical)

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Request (1.00 / 0) (#17)
by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 09:04:43 AM EST

Half our our death row population has been found innocent,

I missed that in all the coming and going of daily life and would love to read more.

Could you give us a link??

Publicity stunt? (none / 0) (#1)
by BlueLakeMichigan on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 07:58:21 PM EST

So what? What's wrong with having a supporter speak on your behalf so that you, the candidate, can get the chance to even be acknowledged by less engaged voters? This is like the ridiculous spat of ambition between HRC and Brother Barack that has helped make this race look petty and childish.

they say that like it's a bad thing. (none / 0) (#2)
by cpinva on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 09:01:14 PM EST

Prominent African-American supporters of John Edwards accused Barack Obama on Friday of performing a "publicity stunt"

no such thing as bad publicity, or so i've often heard. if her presence makes people look at obama, the event's been a success.

sorry, sounds a tad like sour (damn, why couldn't we get her?) grapes, on the edward's supporter's parts.

Obama Gaining More Ground on Clinton, Iowa (none / 0) (#3)
by Aaron on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 09:29:16 PM EST

Newsweek poll (12-07-07) shows Obama gaining further ground on Clinton, with Edwards falling further behind among likely caucus goers.

he gained a point but (none / 0) (#4)
by Jeralyn on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 09:59:41 PM EST

she's still ahead. And check out page 9:

Is a strong leader
Hillary - Obama
39 25 (total polled)
38 29 (likely caucus goers)

Has the right experience for the job of president
Hillary - Obama
48 12 (total polled)
48 15 (likely caucus goers)

: He leads her among those likely to actually caucus (none / 0) (#5)
by Geekesque on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:20:49 PM EST

Also:
Can bring about the change this country needs:
All: Clinton 30, Obama 34, Edwards 20
Likely: Clinton 28, Obama 42, Edwards 17
Is personally likable:
All: Clinton 20, Obama 36, Edwards 28
Likely: Clinton 18, Obama 41, Edwards 26

This post kinda reads like sour grapes. n/t (none / 0) (#6)
by Geekesque on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:21:30 PM EST

not surprising (none / 0) (#7)
by Jeralyn on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:29:25 PM EST

for an Obama supporter to think so.

I'm not committed. My favorites are Hillary and Edwards, but I will support whichever Democrat gets the nomination.


: With all respect, 'the race card' seems (none / 0) (#8)
by Geekesque on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:44:57 PM EST

would seem to be an extremely unfortunate way to characterize her campaigning for Obama.

: And those Edwards supporters (none / 0) (#9)
by Geekesque on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:48:46 PM EST

were definitely engaging in sour grapes whining--in fact they embarrassed the Edwards campaign to the point where the campaign disassociated itself from their comments.

: i absolutely love (none / 0) (#10)
by Jgarza on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:50:16 PM EST

your blog but:

I'm not committed.
I read your posts on the election, either you are behind Clinton, or you are committed to seriously disliking O. Not as bad as Jane over at fdl, same issue though great blogger, but needs to stop the Obama hating.

As a fan of Obama (none / 0) (#11)
by Jgarza on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:53:06 PM EST

The endorsement that made me super jealous was Madonna endorsing Hillary. I love Madonna it hurts me to have to disagree with her.

boy skeeter, you sure blather a lot. (none / 0) (#13)
by cpinva on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 02:58:43 AM EST

i don't "hate" obama, i just don't believe he's the man for the job this time around. his campaign goofs are illustrative of his lack of experience in general. one glaring example: his clearly uninformed comments about social security.

either he truly didn't know he was completely mistaken, or he assumed everyone else didn't, and he could get away with it. either way, it was a classic display of the weak grasp of the national issues that he currently possesses. not surprising, given his fairly limited exposure to them.

give him another few years in the senate, then send him out. he'll pummel whoever the repubs are foolish enough to oppose him with.

: crisis (none / 0) (#14)
by Jgarza on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 04:34:32 AM EST

campaign goofs? you mean like trying to attack someone because of an essay they wrote in kindergarten? playing the gender card? defending lobbyists? flip flopping on dls?
Yeah i love this, no one ever vote for Obama he said SS and crisis in the same sentence. Ohh the humanity! I mean real leaders pander to neocons, vote to authorize dumb wars and declare random countries armies terrorist. NOW THAT IS SKILLED EXPEREINCE!

Off to Iowa (none / 0) (#15)
by Aaron on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 05:51:56 AM EST

To canvass likely caucus goers in the snow and ice, to see if I can convince them to join the Obama juggernaut.

I'll be back late this evening, hopefully with another poll point in my pocket. :-)

Obama 08, leadership, strength, unity.

I believe, and so can you.

the idea that Obama (none / 0) (#16)
by Deconstructionist on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 09:00:51 AM EST

"goofed" on SSis entirely the product of silly people working for other candidates and has not only gained ZERO traction outside the penumbras of the blog fringe, it never will. If anything SS as an issue will hurt those candidates who continue to evade giving clear answers to how they want to deal with the problems that must be addressed. SS is vitally important too a huge number of people -- they want it to be continued as they believe they were promised it would be and they want to know how those promises will be funded.

Too many people on the blogs think that just because they write something silly, people will believe it. That kind of arrogant dsimissal of the intelligence of the voter is the real "goof." Believe it or not most people can recognize a canard when they see it.

I'm actually one who believes Obama is lacking in experience and I think the "empty suit" attack will resonate but for Clinton supporters to try to make him the "goofer" for acknowledging SS is an issue of vital importance and one that requires real change in funding will only draw attention to her continued refusal to give even a genberal idea of how she will provide the additional funding that is indisputably necessary. Goofy describes the belief that people will accept "I don't know and will await the recommedations of the 99 millionth blue ribbon advisory panel" evasion.

When people look back..... (none / 0) (#18)
by LibraryLady on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 12:30:22 PM EST

Oprah did wonders for book sales and libraries when she had her first series of "Oprah recommends" books. But time after time, people would come back in and say "That book really wasn't very good".

I always thought I HAD to finish a book but with some of her selections, I just put the book aside. If she chooses a Presidential candidate - will we be able to set him aside??