Oprah-palooza
Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007 9:20 AM by Mark Murray
“OMentum” is the
New York Post headline on the Oprah-Obama events this weekend in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “In her first foray into politics, Oprah drew nearly 70,000 people in appearances with Obama over the weekend at two events in Iowa, one in South Carolina and one last night in New Hampshire, where about 8,500 supporters showed up. As people streamed into the Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC, they were each handed a slip of paper. On the front was a list of four South Carolina voters to call using their cellphones, and on the back was a script touting Obama.”
The Los Angeles Times notes how Oprah and Obama tailored the message for the South Carolina audience yesterday. "Winfrey and Obama appealed directly to that demographic, peppering their speeches with ‘y'all’ and ‘you folks.’ They made several references to church attendance, beauty parlors and God, and quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."
The Washington Post's Balz notes, “Winfrey drew responses of ‘no’ and ‘nonsense’ when she said there are those who say the youthful Obama, who is in his third year in the Senate, should wait for his turn before seeking the presidency. The cries turned to cheers and applause as she continued: ‘Think about where you'd be in your life if you waited when the people told you to. I wouldn't be where I am if I waited on the people who told me it couldn't be.’”
NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli was in Manchester for the last stop of Oprah-palooza. Obama’s speech was largely the same, Memoli reported, except for one acknowledgement early in the speech. Obama welcomed members of the AFL-CIO, who he said were his special guests. “They’re here at my request, as my special guest because the Verizon Wireless Arena does not hire stagehands who are union workers,” Obama told the crowd. “This is a great facility, and we should have union workers in here to make sure that the stagehands are getting a fair shake.”
The Los Angeles Times on Oprah-Obama in Iowa on Saturday: "The 50-minute rally in Des Moines was a potent hybrid of pop and politics; of hope and self-help admonition (‘I am not here to tell you what to think,’ she said. ‘I am here to ask you to think’) peppered with subtle digs at Obama's main opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. ‘Experience in the hallways of government isn't as important to me as experience on the pathway of life,’ she said.”
The Columbia State: “Winfrey wows crowd.”
The Boston Globe called it a “watershed moment.”
Newsweek's Fineman believes Oprah outshone Obama.
