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Let’s call
a spade a spade. Oprah Winfrey is an African-American woman. There, I’ve
said it. Shocker. The pundits have been break-dancing around this truth
and what it means to her celebrity endorsement of African-American-Indonesian candidate
Barack Obama with the same finesse Marie Osmond
almost danced her way to the
top of Dancing With the Stars.
By the way, I say Indonesian because Mr. Obama has
boasted that he spent
a few years of his early childhood in Jakarta where he says he learned foreign
policy. I figure that at the same time he must have learned to
become Indonesian.
Anyway, back to the press'
nonexistent
examination of Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Barack Obama -- big mistake.
No, huge
mistake, because Ms. Oprah "living-in-sin-is-a-bad-role-model" Winfrey
is not your average celebrity endorser.
To shimmy-shimmy-coco-puff
around this truth is irresponsible of those of us whose job it is to point
out such things.
There are many questions I’d like
to ask Ms. Winfrey concerning her endorsement of the first
African-American to seek the office of the President of the United States.
First, I’d like to know if she’s endorsing Mr. Obama because she thinks
he’s the best man for the job, or the best African-American man for the
job, or maybe both.
And second, I’d like to know if she’d like
to take the mass of wealth and power she has earned in her lifetime and
see just how far it can take her? Does she wish to be a Gayle-kingmaker? Does she feel a responsibility to
African-American’s to use her celebrity status to get an African-American
elected president?
I wonder if Barack Obama weren’t
in the running for the democratic party's nomination if Ms. Winfrey would consider
endorsing Mrs. Clinton, the first Caucasian woman running for the
nomination. After all, Ms. Winfrey is a woman, too. Does she feel less
responsible to women, the very brand that made her what she is today?
Girlfriend, can we talk?
In the 1998 election cycle, when
singer/film director Barbra Streisand, who with all due respect is not
Oprah Winfrey, came out in support of Bill Clinton she was almost tarred
and feathered by the media for her endorsement.
Now Oprah, decidedly the
most powerful and influential African-American and woman in America - if
not the world - comes out in support of the other O (she’s never
previously endorsed a political candidate) and hardly a descending word is
uttered.
O...oh...and now Streisand has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, but this
cycle it appears to be no big deal. I could say that I don’t get it, but,
O Lordy, I do.
The whole concept of political endorsements
is peculiar anyway. Really, is the American electorate so insecure that it
needs celebrities to tell it who to vote for? Apparently, so. In fact,
according to E-Poll, the younger the voter the more impact
celebrity endorsements have. No Big O surprise.
Which begs the question, can a celebrity or public figure have too much
power and influence so that they should responsibly stay out of the
political fray?
I think of former
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan deliberately restraining his comments when it
came to fiscal matters rather than risk making a statement that might send
the world into recession.
Might Oprah Winfrey consider she could be too O-verpowering
a celebrity to toss her hat into the political arena?
I think she might be and it’s
not O–k.
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