Oprah tells Americans that 'Obama is the one'
Oprah WInfrey embraces Barack Obama at the weekend ? the endorsement could be telling in the race for the White House
On a DAY that began for Hillary Clinton with a ham and cheese omelette in a cramped diner, Barack Obama is by contrast standing in a vast arena, his arm around Oprah Winfrey, who has just told 18,500 cheering Democrats: "I am here to tell you, Iowa: he is the one!"
Winfrey, a woman so powerful that one favourable word can turn a product into a sales blockbuster -- her praise for the Russian classic Anna Karenina sent it straight to the top of the bestseller list -- has just delivered perhaps the first pivotal celebrity endorsement in presidential politics, to the largest crowd in Iowa caucus history.
It is not meant to be like this in the Hawkeye State, where they like to size up their politicians in living rooms and school libraries, without live rock bands and a billionaire talk-show diva who hopes to do for Mr Obama in his campaign what she did for Leo Tolstoy.
"It's time for us to dream America anew again and support Barack Obama," the First Lady of television declared, as cable TV news programmes cut live to the event and camera flashes filled the huge hall in central Des Moines.
"That is why, for the very first time in my life I feel compelled to stand up and speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America. We need Barack Obama."
Kicking off a two-day tour with Mr Obama through the crucial early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Winfrey, who has never endorsed a politician before, is giving Mr Obama an in calculable boost by delivering him vast crowds in the closing days of the campaign.
A further 10,000 Iowans filled a venue in Cedar Rapids on Saturday night, before another free-ticket rally in an 80,000-seat football stadium in South Carolina yesterday. In Manchester, New Hampshire, all 12,000 tickets were gone for their appearance last night, in the biggest primary campaign event in the Granite State's history.
In a hastily arranged effort to blunt the Winfrey appeal, Mrs Clinton campaigned in Iowa on Saturday with two last-minute celebrity guests of her own: her daughter, Chelsea (27), and her mother, Dorothy Rodham (88), who shuns publicity. Ms Rodham's last interview was in 2004 -- on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Mrs Clinton also dispatched her husband, Bill, to campaign in South Carolina, the day before the Obama-Oprah bandwagon rolled into the Palmetto State. In the past three weeks, she has almost doubled her Iowa staff, to 220.
Mr Obama is a candidate suddenly on a roll, and for the first time within his campaign there is a genuine belief that he can beat Mrs Clinton.
In recent polls, he has opened a small lead over Clinton in Iowa, has reduced her once-formidable lead in New Hampshire to single digits and has virtually wiped out her advantage in South Carolina.
Voters in all three states believe that Mrs Clinton is better qualified to be president, but even more say that they want a fresh start.
Celebrity endorsements rarely produce results in presidential contests, but with Winfrey, an almost ecumenical political figure, America is entering uncharted waters.
She is admired across every demographic, and nearly nine million people watch her show daily. In Winfrey (53), Mr Obama has an exemplar of the non-partisan, post-Bush, post-babyboomer politics of change that is his core message. (©The Times, London)
