LiveWire

Good morning everyone! Just the usual heads-up that I’ll be on Fox this morning, at about 10:35am ET this time around.

The topic: Oprah Winfrey stumping for Barack Obama. Fox has sent me a piece from the NY Times. Since I won’t link to that piece of trick, here’s the text. I found particularly interesting Obama’s description of the women in the audience.

DES MOINES — Oprah Winfrey is coming to town for Senator Barack Obama, his campaign announced today, scheduling a three-state tour beginning here on Dec. 8.

Ms. Winfrey, who has been fiercely protective of her extraordinary brand, is dipping into presidential politics for the first time with a visit to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. While she announced her loyalties to Mr. Obama’s campaign months ago and held a fundraising gala for him in California, this trip marks her debut on the campaign trail.

For weeks, the Obama campaign has been waiting for a signal from Ms. Winfrey that she was ready to campaign. It comes, of course, as former President Bill Clinton is stepping up his efforts to campaign for his wife in Iowa in advance of the Jan. 3 caucuses.

In an interview last month aboard his campaign plane, Mr. Obama talked briefly about Ms. Winfrey and her starpower, but noted that he was surprised she wanted to fully engage in politics.

“She says she wants to do something, which I was actually surprised by,” Mr. Obama said. “But I think it’s interesting to her.”

Mr. Obama and Ms. Winfrey met around the time he was running for Senate in 2004. The first time he and his wife, Michelle, appeared on her show, he said he was floored by the audience’s reaction to the talk show host. (No, he conceded, he hadn’t watched the show before, but he quickly added that his wife did.)

“We were waiting off stage to get brought in and we watched her walk out and there was a level of excitement among these middle-aged women that I’ve never seen,” Mr. Obama said. “Their eyes glaze over. When you’re there physically to watch it, it’s actually quite surprising. You actually go, wow, they are really excited. I’ve been on other shows where folks are having fun, but on this one, they were transported.”

The celebrity glow will no doubt translate to audiences when she arrives in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids on Dec. 8. It remains an open question if it translates into more supporters on caucus night.

My general point is going to be that after ‘endorsing ‘ men like James Frey and Dr. Jan Adams, I think most people will take a political endorsement with a grain of salt. Besides, last time I checked, American women know how to make their own decisions, just like Oprah. Selling books is one thing, life and death and the future of this nation is quite another.