Oprah packs Iowa arena for Obama
Posted: Saturday, December 08, 2007 8:02 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
DES MOINES, Iowa – Folksy and funny, Oprah Winfrey wooed a packed
standing-room only hall here Saturday afternoon and asked them to
caucus for
Obama. Joking about the ice and sleet that rained
down on Des Moines, she said if Iowans were committed enough to come
out on a day like this, they could come out again on Jan. 3rd.
Winfrey took the stage among a sea of faces, many of whom were there
only to see her speak, saying that she knew little of partisan politics
and had voted for as many Republicans as she had Democrats in the past.
She said she is supporting Obama in this election, because he was "the
one," quoting the character Jane Pittman in The Autobiography of Miss
Jane Pittman.
Winfrey praised Obama for much of what he says he stands for on the
campaign: conviction, the ability to unite the country and good
judgment demonstrated by his opposition to the Iraq War from the
beginning. But it was not the praise that she heaped on Obama that made
one understand why Winfrey was so compelling. Instead, it was the way
she spoke about politics, introducing her speech by saying she wouldn't
presume to tell anyone "what to think."
Instead, she said she was giving them something to think about. She swung from a grand eloquence comparing the experience one gains from walking the corridors of power in Washington with walking the pathways of life, to the kind kitchen table gossip that have won over viewers across the United States. She joked that when she wasn't talking about who would win "Dancing with the Stars" with her friends, they expressed an "uh uh, uh," she said when talking about the state of affairs in the country.
In speaking with the throngs of people streaming into the auditorium and then leaving it, many right after she spoke, there was no question that they were there to see Winfrey rather than Obama. The crowd, a campaign staffer joked, looked like a Bennetton ad, filled with diversity that one rarely sees in Iowa. A group of
Giuliani supporters had high praise for Winfrey, saying that Obama was lucky to have someone like her, but questioned whether the candidate would be able to sell his message to Iowans.
Others said they were open to Obama because of the speech. One group of women, who got tickets, because their brother was a precinct captain, had never caucused before, and at least three were planning to attend the January caucus partially because they felt Winfrey helped push them towards a call to service. One of the three said that after listening to Obama's speech that she was open to caucusing for him.
Winfrey's speech was sandwiched between a short introduction between Obama’s wife Michelle, and a longer speech by Obama. He praised Iowa and Iowans for their kindness and openness to supporting him, and said that even when he was down in the polls, he would always point to Iowa as a place where voters were listening to him.
The campaign estimated that 18,500 people packed HyVee Hall in downtown Des Moines. That number is several thousand greater than the number of people that appeared for all seven Democratic candidates at the Harkin Steak Fry in September.
