presidential race
BY ERIC L. HINTON
Can Oprah bring voters
to Obama?
Oprah Winfrey is accustomed to generating headlines. So it’s no surprise she
generated major buzz when announcing in
late November that she’d be stumping along the
campaign trail with Democratic presidential hopeful
Sen. Barack Obama.
BUT WILL THE BUZZ TRANSLATE INTO VOTES?
While celebrity endorsements generally bring about
only marginal returns, if anyone can bring out the
vote for Obama, it’s Winfrey, whose massive audience
cuts across lines of race and class. Winfrey’s web site,
Oprah.com, reaches 3 million unique visitors a month.
According to quantcast.com, Winfrey’s web-site users
are predominantly white ( 77 percent), followed by
blacks ( 17 percent) and Latinos ( 4 percent).
“OBAMA’S IN A very close
race RIGHT NOW, SO ANY
LITTLE BIT WOULD HELP. THIS IS
NOT GOING TO CHANGE A LOT OF
MINDS BUT IT may change
just enough.”
CARROLL DOHERTY, THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Until this election, Winfrey had resisted efforts
to throw her significant backing behind a candidate.
Now that she’s finally jumped into the political pool,
what impact will she have?
