Oprah Winfrey can tell people what book to read and they turn it into a best seller. Can she do the same thing with a Presidential candidate? She is backing Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. In fact, she held a massive fund raiser for Obama this weekend at her Santa Barbra mansion in California.
Does she risk alienating any of her viewers by backing a candidate? I don’t remember Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas endorsing a political candidate.
Will she actually vote for him in the Democratic Illinois primary? If she does, it will be the first time she has actually voted in an Illinois primary election since 1988. [Link]
“Does she risk alienating any of her viewers by backing a candidate?”
Right, because right up until now, nobody ever suspected Oprah was liberal.
Is she a liberal? It’s kinda hard to tell. She has more money then Scrooge McDuck and she usually stays in the middle of the road when it comes to politics. The fact that she would back Obama when clearly the Democratic power brokers have chosen Mrs. Clinton to be the nominee seems … strange.
“She has more money then Scrooge McDuck…”
The fact that she’s super-rich has nothing to do with whether she’s liberal or conservative…or somewhere in the middle. That whole “rich=Republican, poor=Democrat” thing is such a stale old canard. I know just as many Republicans of modest to low income as I do upper-middle to wealthy Democrats.
I guess I’m no Oprah expert, but everything I do know about her paints her as a big time liberal…from the guests she books, the books she plugs, the money she donates, the causes she champions, etc, etc. Sure, she’s not a bleating pig about it like Rosie O’Donnel, but it wouldn’t take much research to confirm O’s liberal credentials. I’m sure a political donation list would be enough evidence.
I think everyone is missing the OBVIOUS Obama-Oprah link: they’re both from the south.
Hawaii is the southern-most U.S. state.
Also, Obama was an extra in The Color Purple.
It’s been my experience that there are certain core values that attract people to the Republican party. People are Republicans usually because they mistakenly think it is more in line with their chosen religion or because they believe Republicans in power will lower their taxes. There is also the whole faux patriotic thing, but that’s a fairly new phenomenon.
I don’t think Oprah is religious, but I know she is extremely rich. I’ve always looked at her to be more middle of the road when it comes to her politics. For instance, I know she had Al Gore and George Bush on her show during the 2000 elections.
Rosie O’Donnel isn’t a liberal. She’s an idiot.
What does it say about me that I think Oprah is kind of hot? I’d do her in a Kentucky Second.