Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > September > 12
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
No, Oprah. No politics.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dang. Oprah’s going political. The entertainment superstar endorsed Barack Obama in May, but now she’s considering a larger role in his campaign that may include speaking for him at campaign events. She’s also hosted a fund-raiser for him over the weekend at her 42-acre estate in Montecito, Calif. — her first for a political candidate.
“My money isn’t going to make any difference” to a presidential candidate, said Oprah in a television interview with Larry King. “My value to him — my support of him — is probably worth more than any other check that I could write.”
As an Oprah admirer, the news that she’s venturing prominently into the partisan arena is tremendously disappointing. Her advocacy for Obama will do less to help him win the White House than it will to raise questions about future causes and issues she decides to take on. The refreshing thing about Oprah is, or was, that you could watch her program — something I rarely do because it’s not my particular taste and, besides, I’m on the job when it airs — without having to guard against hidden agendas. Now, who knows? It’s hard to be a political operative one day and avoid seeing the world from the perspective of the liberal candidate when the campaign ends. I don’t think you switch in and out.
Too bad. The woman is amazing. Her book club routinely took titles that would have a hard time selling 20,000 and boosted their sales to more than a million. Her decision to avoid the “who’s the baby’s daddy?” sleaze that has become the staple of her small-time competitors raised the bar for daytime television.
It was a mistake for Walter Cronkite to lend is voice to the anti-war movement by offering his personal opinion on the news following the 1968 Tet Offensive and it’s a mistake for Oprah Winfrey to become openly and actively involved in a political campaign. The mistake for Cronkite is that every newscaster after him is assumed to have an opinion about the news that sometimes is reflected in the stories they report. The non-political Oprah was in a class by herself. Why join Rosie and the Dixie Chicks?
