Newsweek, Fineman: Oprah outshone the candidate

[DeepModem Mom]

Howard Fineman: Star Power
Barack Obama couldn't have hoped for a better endorser than Oprah. Problem was, she outshone the candidate.
Dec 9, 2007


(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

....The good news for Obama is that Oprah was his lead-in. She is wildly popular, as the banshee screams proved when she strode onto the stage in black slacks and a canary yellow jacket. But the bad news is that Oprah was his lead-in. She is astonishing, truly. The woman was on her maiden campaign trail voyage, and yet she already she was better -— more cogent, more effective, more convincing —-than anyone out there. "I'm the third best speaker on the stage," the senator said. Unfortunately, he was right.

Summoning the communications skills she had assembled from years of book reading, book-group hosting, TV-show headlining and movie acting, Oprah riffed her way through an eloquent paean to the need for a change of leadership in America. "Dr. King talked about the dream," she said. "Now we get to vote that dream into reality. You gotta step out of your box!" she said. "We can dream America anew!"

She directly tackled the "experience" question that Hillary Clinton's campaign has thrown at Obama, saying that the country should prefer "the wisdom won from years of serving outside the walls of Washington, DC." In fact, there are no walls around the nation's capital —- just a traffic-clogged highway -- but I know what she meant.

"It's Obama time!" she declared, and the candidate emerged from a tunnel and onto the stage. Whether by instinct or design, the thin-as-a-rail, youthful looking Obama looked somehow innocent as he appeared -— a man-child in this setting, doted over and presented by two powerful, commanding women (his wife and his endorser).

He said all the right things for the crowd -— expressing his support for universal health care, for better public schools funding, for a defense of the nation based on diplomacy as well as military might. His biggest applause line came when he reminded the crowd that George Bush would not be on the ballot in 2008. The pictures were great -— there will be ads on the air soon from this event (the Obama staff had three cameras working it). But the candidate went on and on -— and toward the end seemed to leave the crowd less pumped up than Oprah had made it....

http://www.newsweek.com/id/74581/output/print

[MadBadger]

1. Doesnt sound like Fineman was watching him in SC

Cuz Obama nailed it there.

[MADem]

2. Apparently, he was reporting FROM SC. He was there--at least that is the way the article

was written. He interviewed at least one attendee:

As fate would have it, Perry, a third-generation New Yorker, moved here to Columbia in 1978. She worked for the University of South Carolina, sending her daughter, Philana, to the just-desegregated public schools. Now, on a sunny Sunday all these many years later, mother and daughter joined 20,000 others who listened with rapt attention to Oprah Winfrey introduce Sen. Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. ...
If Obama hopes to win, here and elsewhere, he has to hope he makes the sale he made to Andrea Perry.

In a sun-splashed football stadium, the crowd—black and white, young and old—gathered to hear the hip-hop funk of the '90s hip-hop group Arrested Development, followed by Michelle Obama, who gave way to Oprah, who gave way to the candidate.

...Obama needs to convert hope into votes here in the South Carolina primary on January 26. If past is prologue, half of the voters will be African-Americans, and Obama needs a strong vote among them if he expects to win.

[MadBadger]

4. First off, why is he under reporting the amount of people there?

The rally got 30,000, not 20,000.

[MADem]

13. You'll have to ask him. I wasn't there. I have no clue what it was like or how many turned up. NT

[MadBadger]

17. Every news agency reported 29-30,000, and he is down about 10,000.

[MADem]

18. Like I said, I wasn't there. I haven't seen those numbers, but I wasn't looking for them, either.

I have no dog in this fight.

[sandnsea]

5. You expected objectivity??

Pssht. It's a miracle they reported on any of Hillary's gaffes, let alone a fair assessment of Obama.

[alteredstate]

23. Yeah, he nailed it in SC

and it was obvious those in attendance were there to see Obama. I've been to a lot of political rallies, but I've never seen anything like it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

3. Am I the only one who distrusts Oprah's bible-thumping cadence?

I caught a few moments at the height of the speech and I could swear I saw Elmer Gantry.

[emilyg]

19. You're not the only one.

[Cha]

6. Oh yeah, howie fineman

always knows what he's talking about..mediawhores have to have a divisive angle to start from. fineman's been carrying water for the bushites for 7 years and now he's branching out cause bush pissed in his water.

[frogcycle]

7. I wince every time I see or hear this expression

Chris Matthews keeps saying it too.

With all the PC crap like not calling the ballteam's mascot pork Chop lest it offend Puerto Ricans, does nobody know the use of the term "shine" in Jim Crow days?

[babylonsister]

12. Words in English have different meanings which is why it's a hard

language to learn; I think you're worrying about the wrong thing(s). That never even crossed my mind-there are things about being too p.c. that bug me, too.

[frogcycle]

15. not worried - just surprised

Am I so old I am the only one who knows that connotation?

I got called out one time by a black friend for saying "call a spade a spade"

I was oblivious to his interpretation of the expression - but he thought it offensive

I just think there are plenty of people out there who hear that and think of an Amos 'n' Andy routine, and it probably doesn't set well.

[babylonsister]

16. I'm familiar with what you wrote and what you referenced, and

I 'almost' commented until I read the context. We need to let it go and move forward. I hope.

[oasis]

8. I hope the crowd brought along their wading boots. The Queen and Crown Prince of B.S.

can lay in on pretty thick.:yoiks:

[BeyondGeography]

9. Fineman only underestimated the crowd by about 10,000 or so

The one "fact" in his report and he blows it completely.

I thought Obama's speech was a classic. It ran long; he seemed a little caught up in the moment. But the content was among the best I've heard.

The latest poll shows him up 6 points in South Carolina with blacks already coming over to him from Hillary in large numbers prior to the Oprah event.

http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_1210_74.aspx

[MadBadger]

10. Yea, I dont get how he could forget 10,000 people.

[babylonsister]

11. Wasn't Fineman on KO tonight, and didn't he weigh in on who did

better/worse, meaning he didn't venture a guess, or was that Milbanks? I know someone did, and thought it was him.

[jenmito]

14. Even if true in some people's opinions, so what? Her job was to talk about how great Obama would be

for America. I'm sure the people who were so impressed with her took her words seriously.

[hughee99]

20. That's one way to spin it...

When candidates do appearances with celebrities, a many people show up who wouldn't otherwise go to a political rally if it were just the candidate. They go to see the celebrity. Why is it then surprising that the celebrity gets the better reception? What Oprah did, what any celebrity does, is to provide a candidate access to people who may not otherwise be listening.

[FrenchieCat]

21. Why am I supposed to take MediaWhore Extraordinaire Fineman's word for this?

Just cause the guy shows up on MSNBC and works for Newsweek......both owned by the same media company, aka, General Election Electric, doesn't mean he ain't nothing more than a pundit head making shit up as he goes.

They obviously are about to land the Media "hates you" bomb on Barack. Hope he's expecting it, cause it is a coming.

They've already deconstructed Hillary.

John Edwards is about to rise in the eyes of the media, and will be the one they will be promoting starting tomorrow. Just watch.

[Kahuna]

22. Oh please. I saw the Iowa event. They both did well. I remember

more what Obama said than what Oprah said.