What price Oprah? (Oprah causes backlash against Obama?)

LA Times ^ | December 28, 2007 | TINA DAUNT

[Anti-Bubba182]

The popular TV personality helps Barack Obama draw big crowds while her fans fume

WITH less than a week until Iowa's first vote is cast in the 2008 presidential election, the politicians aren't the only ones feeling the heat: Celebrities, who have become important players in the political fundraising process, are under increasing pressure to campaign for their favorite candidates in the early caucus and primary states.

But how a star -- particularly a supernova -- responds isn't always a simple matter of "yes" or "no." With the exception of Oprah Winfrey, who's been working the trail with mixed results for Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, most of the A-listers have opted to stay out of the spotlight for now. (Chuck Norris, who has campaigned everywhere for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate, occupies a planet of his own.)

Although it's true that rallies featuring Winfrey in Iowa and South Carolina have drawn some of the biggest crowds of the campaign so far, Obama's people won't know whether they also triggered a backlash until election day.

Winfrey's website has been buzzing for weeks with angry postings about her involvement in the Illinois senator's campaign, something Hollywood, which always keeps its eye on the public mood, is bound to notice -- this is a town, after all, that measures success by weekly grosses and daily TV ratings.

One posting on her site, Oprah.com, accused the talk diva of being a traitor. (By Thursday, that message string had attracted more than 12,000 views.) Another poster told Winfrey to "stop pushing Obama down our throats." (There were 3,000 hits logged on that one.) Another said: "Do you really know Barack Hussein Obama? Scary & something we have to take into consideration!" ..........."

[Anti-Bubba182]

Backlash? That may be, but I do not think Obama would have gotten the bounce he did without her support.

Also the number of threads and views are not that big a deal over the time.

[Old Sarge]

ANY publicity is GOOD publicity.

[Tamar1973]

Another said: "Do you really know Barack Hussein Obama?

Only a conservative would refer to the Hussein in his name.

[Larry Lucido]

I don’t mind one bit that Obama is upsetting Clinton’s presumed coronation, but I otherwise don’t have a dog in this fight. Oprah and Obama barely register on my daily radar.

Still, if I were an Oprah fan (gag!), I would now think less of her for having whored herself out like this. Not saying a TV personality can’t have an opinion, but why would someone with a broad audience want to alienate a huge segment, like some actors and singers do when they make partisan statements that alienate their entire Republican fan base? Just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

[Rudder]

Hillary’s sycophants are pissed!

[KarlInOhio]

Only a conservative would refer to the Hussein in his name.

Or one of Hillary's flying monkeys who is trying to recover her position as the presumptive 'Rat nominee.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I think so too or possibly it was a Clinton operative.

The backlash could be real, but where was Obama before oprah? The backlash factor is most likely to hurt a frontrunner.

[Red Badger]

Perhaps Orpah (her birth name) should consider giving away cars at the rallies........

[digger48]

I’ve actually had a couple of women, big-time libs and Oprah fans, refer to post endorsement Oprah in terms that would make a long-haul trucker blush.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Agreed, it greatly behooves Ms. Domestic Goddess to triangulate and be above it all. Endorsing a political candidate (D or R) means she’s pissing off 48% of the electorate, I just don’t see any logic in doing that.

First her African school and now this. Oprah sure seems to be screwing up lately.

[RedRover]

As George M. Cohan used to say, just spell my name right. Of course, the Obama-Osama thing would be an example of Cohan’s law.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Exactly. There are a lot of fishbowl articles that get posted on FR that aren’t really reporting actual news, just baseless speculation.

[DoughtyOne]

Obama was doing just fine before Oprah jumped in. IMO she helped a little. I don’t see her as a big king-maker, and that’s exactly what they are trying to play her off as.

IMO, she’s as big a liability as an asset here.

[rocksblues]

Your saying that Hillary is a conservative?

[cherry]

backlash is real....thinking about that grandiose love fest/ campaign rally / funeral for the dead Senator from Minnesota...I don’t even remember his name...

[CharentonChina]

I respect Oprah for choosing Obama over Hillary. Oprah’s audience annoys me more than Oprah herself does. If all these people need Oprah to tell them what to buy, or how to actually pick up a book and read it, why shouldn’t she make money off them?

[mtbopfuyn]

I haven’t been able to stomach Oprah for years. I never will forget when I was channel surfing about 8 years ago and happened upon the show about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ decendants and how she made the white audience members stand up and apologize for slavery.

And Chuck facial hair reminds me of monkey butts.

[RoseofTexas]

Lemme see here:

“The popular TV personality helps Barack Obama draw big crowds while her fans fume”

B.S. meter! Sounds like a clinton buttlicker over at the L.A SLIMES doing some damage control for the SHE-DEVIL! We all knew the stage was being set after the disastrous weeks the BEAST666 was having! THE COMEBACK KID? I think not! It's all a wet illusion by the mediaWHORES!

[The Pack Knight]

I think she's causing more of a backlash against herself than against Obama. Still, her endorsement hasn't had benefited Obama nearly as much as one might expect, given her popularity.

I, for one, am pleasantly surprised that even Democrat voters haven't entirely bought into the Cult of Oprah.

[Palladin]

Well, well, well. Mighty Oprah has struck out!