Could Oprah run for president?
Support is growing for the queen of talk to set her sights on the Oval Office – and she’s hinted it’s not out of the question
CALM. Collected. Compassionate – but tough as nails. She’s the antithesis of the current president of the United States – but she’d be the perfect balm to soothe the gaping gashes President Donald Trump seems to have torn in American society.
Oprah Winfrey had the Twitterverse in a frenzy with a little tweet that indicated she might, just might, consider running for office in the 2020 US presidential elections.
Tagging NY Post columnist John Podhoretz, she retweeted an article he’d penned for the website titled “Democrats’ best hope for 2020: Oprah”.
“Thanks for your VOTE of confidence!” she wrote.
Podhoretz replied cheekily: “Give it a shot, what, would it kill you?”
It was written after Oprah (63) had chaired a special segment of CBS’ news programme 60 Minutes, in which voters from Michigan debated the growing chasms among Americans.
“Listening, asking, speaking without judgment, trying to find common ground – it was a superb performance by Oprah,” Podhoretz, once a speechwriter for former presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, said.
Her “performance”, he added, apparently sparked another idea in the brain of the NY Post’s editor of commentary.
“If you need to set a thief to catch a thief,” he wrote, “you need a star – a grand, outsized, fearless star whom Trump can neither intimidate nor outshine – to catch a star.”
His theory might be a little out there, but his argument is compelling.
“She’s the mirror image of Trump, but more so,” he writes of the journalistturned-actress-turned-talk-show-host. “Of course, she’s female and he’s male; she’s America’s generous aunt and he’s America’s crazy uncle. And yes, she’s black and he’s white, she’s liberal and he’s whatever he is.
“She is, in herself, the embodiment of the American Dream.”
IT’S not the first time Oprah has been mentioned as a contender for the Oval Office. Even the hot-headed US commander in chief himself has noted what a worthy candidate Oprah would be. Trump said it first as a joke in 1999 and again last year when he told ABC News he’d love to have the former queen of daytime TV as his vice-president. “She’s great, she’s talented, she’s a friend of mine, she’s a good person. I’d love to have Oprah. I think we’d win easily actually.”
In August documentary filmmaker Michael Moore declared Democrats would need “a beloved American in 2020” to knock Trump out of office – and he cited Oprah as one of the most obvious choices.
“Who wouldn’t vote for Tom Hanks for president of the United States? C’mon! Or Oprah!”
Okay – but a former talk-show host as president of the United States of America?
“Two years ago I’d have laughed and said this is ridiculous,” Jack Pitney, professor of government at California’s Claremont McKenna College, told news site TheWrap.
“But now we have a reality show celebrity in the White House, why not? Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire, too. As I understand the difference, she actually earned it.”
The Oscar winner has denied she’s eyeing the top job, of course. “I’ll never run for public office,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in no uncertain terms last year.
After the latest Twitter furore, she denied it again.
“She was just thanking the reporter, she isn’t running for office,” a publicist told TheWrap.
But even Oprah herself – who’s openly spoken out against Trump – can’t deny she may be exactly the opponent needed to dethrone him.
“Publicly, Oprah’s largely laughed off the idea of running for president, but in recent months something has changed,” New York Magazine writer Adam K Raymond points out.
“Maybe it was Trump’s election, which
‘She is, in herself, the embodiment of the American Dream’ − JOHN PODHORETZ
proved that political neophytes with gobs of money can win the White House. Or maybe, six years after the end of her show, Stedman [Graham, her long-time partner] is just getting on her nerves.
“Whatever the reason, Oprah is no longer shying away from talk about her running for president. She’s leaning right in.”
In March the question reared its head yet again after some careful prodding from Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein.
“Have you ever thought that, given the popularity that you have, we haven’t broken the glass ceiling yet for women, that you could actually run for president and be elected?” he asked.
With a thoughtful look Oprah responded slowly, as though weighing her words carefully.
“I actually never considered the question, even the possibility. I thought, ‘Oh, gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough’.” And then Trump was elected. “And now I’m thinking,” she added with her trademark cheeky, knowing look, everything she implied contained in one syllable: “Oh. Oh.”
While she may never have run for any office herself, Oprah has been a political force to be reckoned with behind the scenes for years.
A 2008 study at the University of Maryland found Oprah may actually have been responsible for more than a million votes cast for Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, in the Democratic contest after she endorsed him, Podhoretz points out.
He goes as far as to call the enigmatic media mogul “the initial accelerant” that sparked Obama’s campaign.
She was also instrumental in winning Obama the Hollywood crowd’s stamp of approval in September 2007 at a $3 million (then R21,3 million) fundraiser.
In December of that year, she spent four days with the father of two on his campaign trail in the key early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In South Carolina in particular, Oprah made it clear to women and African Americans that this was their guy – an endorsement that brought a whopping 30 000 people to a stadium. There’s no doubt Oprah Winfrey is adored. When Trump started his campaign, his ratings were astoundingly bad. According to a 2015 Washington PostABC News national poll, a whopping 71% of Americans had an unfavourable view of their future president. A Fox News poll at the same time showed 60% of Americans had a favourable view of Oprah.
More to the point, a Public Policy Polling survey in March found that if Oprah were to go head-to-head with Trump in the 2020 race, 40% of the 800 registered voters who took part would vote for Trump – and 47% would be marking their “X” next to Winfrey on the ballot. Former Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton spent a whopping $1,4 million (now R18,9 million) on her campaign, according to TheWrap.
But with an estimated net worth of $3,1 billion (R41,85 billion), Oprah certainly could fund the entire enterprise herself with no skin off her nose.
Still, she likely wouldn’t have to, as professor of government Jack Pitney points out.
“She’s in the unique position of having a lot of money, a lot of rich friends and a massive following of people who’d be glad to write her some small cheques,” Pitney says. “And that makes for a powerful combo.”
On top of that, Oprah is already a beloved household name and she understands and has connections within the media.
Plus, she yanked all her skeletons out of the closet years ago. She’s already a darling of the press, with no dirty little secrets swept under the proverbial rug, so it’s unlikely a Winfrey 2020 campaign would have to spend big bucks at all.
“If you have the name and the recognition you don’t have to raise as much,” says Howie Mandel, a prominent Democratic bundler (the name given to people who organise and collect donor campaign contributions). “I don’t think she’d need to fundraise.” While Oprah has been happily holed up with her beau Stedman Graham (66)
‘She’s in the unique position of having a lot of money, a lot of rich friends and a massive following of people who would be glad to write her some small cheques. And that makes for a powerful combo’ − JACK PITNEY
since 1986, the author and speaker has largely preferred to keep his head down and shy away from the spotlight permanently trained on his partner of more than 30 years.
Oprah’s real sister-in-arms is her best friend Gayle King, who the press were the first to turn to for comment that her pal may be considering running for office.
After Oprah’s comment in March about the presidency, Gayle (62) said flatly, “It was clearly a joke . . . she was playing with David because they have such a great rapport.
“I’d bet my first, second-born and any unborn children to come, that ain’t never happening. Never. I’ll say never on this one. Nevah, N-E-V-A-H. Nevah.”
But this time? At the time of going to print, she hadn’t said a word. Is she simply choosing not to dignify the notion with a comment – or does she know something we don’t?
If Oprah does decide to enter the great race, you can bet Gayle – who’s the editor-at-large of O, The Oprah Magazine – would be a natural choice for the head of her best friend’s campaign.
The pair have known each other since 1976, when they were worked together at a Baltimore TV station, and have been ever since – once admitting to calling each other up to four times a day.
Plus, the CBS This Morning anchor is a member of the Democratic Party and has close ties to the Obamas – she even went on holiday to Tahiti with Barack and wife Michelle in April. Who better to coax Oprah into office?
Even when she denied her longtime pal might be considering a political career in March, Gayle added: “But, I also heard on The Oprah Winfrey Show over the years you always have the right to change your mind.” SOURCES: NY POST, THEWRAP, THE DAILY BEAST, WASHINGTON POST, FORBES, DAILY MAIL, US WEEKLY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER