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When Oprah Winfrey announced her endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama months ago, excitement built. A full week of the summer’s cable news coverage was dominated by pundits and reporters attempting to quantify what has become known simply as “The Oprah Factor.” Saturday in Des Moines, we got our first real glimpse into how Winfrey, who has topped the daytime TV ratings for decades, might impact the outcome of the 2008 Democratic nominating contest.
More than 15,000 Iowans poured into HyVee Hall on a weekend afternoon plagued by snow and freezing rain (the campaign pegged attendance at 18,500). Many of them drove an hour or more to see Winfrey, who even Obama himself joked was the event’s main attraction. The senator’s wife, Michele, called Winfrey “the first lady of television.”
The diversity of the audience — not only racially, but also socioeconomically and culturally — was striking. Glancing at attendees as they entered, one thing was clear: most of them were not ‘typical’ caucus-goers. But, if every attendee shows up at a Democratic caucus (a feat that not even the Obama campaign would expect), they could represent as much as 15% of the total electorate.
Winfrey, whose ability to stump for a political candidate had so far been untested, gave a speech that will almost certainly make the campaign’s job of recruiting supporters easier. The theme of her speech, which she repeated often, was simple and clear: “We need Barack Obama.”Answering her critics, Winfrey said, “Despite all of the talk, the speculation, and the hype, I understand the difference between a book club and a free refrigerator” and presidential politics. She said the United States faces a “critical moment.”
“I’m not here for partisan beliefs,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats.”
“I’m tired of politics as usual,” Winfrey continued. “That’s why you seldom see politicians on my show — because I only have an hour… It’s really hard in an hour to penetrate that…political veil — that veil of political rhetoric.”
But, she noted effusively, Obama seems to stand out. He is “a politician who has an ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in … unvarnished truth.”
Despite a few pop culture references (to American Idol and Dancing With The Stars, for instance), Winfrey’s speech waded briefly into matters of public policy. On foreign affairs, she expressed her fear that the United States was losing its respect abroad. She said our “estrangement from the rest of the world” creates a “dangerous imbalance,” and that “When we fail to realize that all human hearts are the same, tragedy, and loss, and suffering, and war, and indifference destroy humanity — not just Americans.”
In what sounded like a veiled criticism of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s refusal to meet with leaders of hostile nations like Iran, she said, “We need a president who cares about our relationships with our friends and our enemies.”
“These are dangerous times,” she noted. “I know you know it. We’re all watching American Idol trying to forget about it.”
Turning back to the subject at hand (Barack Obama), she said, “We also must seize this opportunity to support a man who, as the Bible says, loves mercy and does justly.” Obama, she stated unequivocally, is “The One.”
When Obama took the stage, he was quick to reciprocate Winfrey’s praise. “Sometimes celebrities will disappoint you” after meeting them, he said, “But Oprah Winfrey — the more we know her, the more spectacular you realize her character and soul is.”
He also compared himself to her, calling her a “woman with a funny name.”
“Nobody would’ve thought that she would become somebody who moves an entire nation — each and every day.”
Obama then launched into his standard stump speech, which is modeled after his well received performance at last month’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. (In shorthand, we’ve started calling it “the modified JJ.”) But perhaps recognizing the ideological diversity of his audience, his rhetoric was toned down.
In the place where he usually says, “I’m tired of Democrats who think that to seem strong on national security, they have to vote and act like George Bush Republicans,” he left the “Republicans” part out. Where normally he would have said “I don’t want to spend the next four years re-fighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s,” a veiled criticism of the Clintons, he said merely “I don’t want to spend the next four years re-arguing the same arguments.”
Interestingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), a small stream of attendees trickled out of the auditorium while Obama spoke. The Illinois senator, whose star power and ability to attract a crowd have been unparalleled so far this campaign, seems to have met his match in Oprah Winfrey.
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