The Oprah-Obama Backlash

Posted on December 14, 2007

Apparently not all of Oprah Winfrey's fans are happy about her decision to support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton for president. Some feel that Oprah should be supporting the woman in the race -- not a man -- and have accused her of supporting Barack solely because he is black. Many of Oprah's fans have made their feelings known on her website: one post already has nearly 5,000 comments.

Not exactly a scientific sample, but there's a very, very lively discussion of Oprah's endorsement and its racial implications underway on Oprah's site, with a comment titled "OPRAH IS A TRAITOR!!!!!!!!!" getting 4,988 comments, with thousands more under other posts.
The original post:
"I cannot believe that women all over this country are not up in arms over Oprah's backing of Obama. For the first time in history, we actually have a shot at putting a woman in the white house and Oprah backs the black MAN. She's choosing her race over her gender- hypocracy [sic] at it's finest!! Oprah- you should be ashamed of yourself!!!!!"
Other commenters are split, with some defending Oprah, others attacking her, others trying to tone the conversation down. Another commenter wrote:
"For Oprah to do a Martin Luther Kingish, our time has come speech was shocking to me. It didn't even sound like her. She DEFINATELY [sic] chose a black and white platform whether she admits it at all. I for one will be watching Ellen."

Oprah has been campaigning with Barack and his numbers are climbing in Iowa, although reviews of her campaign appearances have been mixed. Many have commented how Oprah seems to overshadow Barack on stage -- and Michelle Obama is pretty much shunted to the sidelines.

In response to the growing controversy, Oprah told Diane Sawyer that a vote for Obama is not a vote against Hillary and that if Obama were to lose the nomination she might have to "readjust her thinking." That's a pretty amazing statement if you think about it. In any event, Oprah should have been prepared: the world of politics is an entirely different thing from the world of a talk show host.