When they put that little "Oprah's choice" sticker on the cover of a book, it instantly becomes a bestseller. It's not yet clear what happens when they put the sticker on a presidential candidate.
The impact of celebrity endorsements, of course, is usually overstated. Such endorsements are more likely to turn a citizen away from a celebrity than toward a candidate. But Oprah Winfrey isn't just a celebrity--- she's a lifestyle, a school of thought, an era. To speak of Oprah is to speak in superlatives: she's the richest this, the most influential that. What Caesar was to geography, it would seem, Winfrey is to turn-of-the-century middlebrow American culture. From her base camp on daytime television, she launches her sorties into every nook and cranny of public communications.
This could eventually be trouble for Senator Obama. In spite of the fact that he is seeking the highest office in the nation, he runs the serious risk of being upstaged by her. It's already hard to find a story about the Senator that doesn't include at least a mention of Winfrey, a situation that will continue as they go on tour together. He'll surely face observations that he is being groomed to be the latest in a line of brand extensions that also includes Dr. Phil; or more hostile accusations that he might become Winfrey's puppet, the deputized commander-in-chief of an Empress to big to be bothered to run for public office herself.
There is no question that Oprah Winfrey is a sincere person who has done a lot of good things and made a lot of people happy. Her life-story and her philosophy of self-invention reflect themes that are deep in the American heart. There is also no question that Barack Obama stands to gain a lot from Winfrey's endorsement. The Senator needs to take care, however, that his candidacy, and the office he seeks, isn't made to seem subordinate to the superstar endorser.
The "Oprah Effect" that everyone is talking about is a mighty and powerful vortex, best approached with extreme caution. According to a recent report, the Senator described the audience's response to Winfrey when he was appearing on her show during his 2004 run for the Senate. "We were waiting off stage to get brought in," the report quotes Obama as saying, "and we watched her walk out and there was a level of excitement among these middle-aged women that I've never seen. Their eyes glaze over...they were transported." I'm not exactly sure what it is, but there's something about that quote, and what it describes, that makes me really uncomfortable. This may be one of those stories that gets the most insightful treatment by late-night television comedies.
Which brings us to the writers' strike. Late night comedy, especially of the variety we've been seeing on programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, has become an increasingly important part of civic discourse in the new century. The greatest loss to American citizens brought on by the writers' strike has been the silencing of these satiric voices just at the time we could really use them.
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Posted December 4, 2007 | 04:45 PM (EST)