Thursday, December 13, 2007

Oprah

It has been clear for years that celebrity endorsements are basically meaningless in the outcome of elections. After all, who really cares who Brad Pitt or Sean Penn support for office? These are people who think a hard day's work is rushing off to their trailer in a huff because the cheese-pastries was aged only 2 and not three years as demanded in their multi-million dollar contracts.

Yet Oprah is different. Why? First, because her success did not come overnight. In explaining the stupidity of most celebrities I like to quote Bob Costas who, speaking of other celebrities -- professional athletes -- explained it by saying "they came to prominence before they came to maturity."

Oprah, like most Americans, started small and, over time, earned her success. Compare Susan Sarandon who came to prominence (and riches) via "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," a movie in which she spent the entire time running around in her underwear, waiting to be seduced by a monster who was only born yesterday -- really not much different than her "marriage."

The closest comparison to Oprah thus far was the leftists' use of Bruce Springsteen four years ago to try and save John Kerry's candidacy. And, while Springsteen was "the boss" while still but a child, his lyrics and his life both prove him to be head and shoulders above the average celebrity. He has withstood the test of time and, when not producing self-consciously political material -- when singing about the human heart -- his lyrics are OVERWHELMINGLY Republican ("I believe in the love that you gave me; I believe in the faith that can save me. I believe and I hope and I pray that someday it may raise me above these badlands...")

Yet Springsteen's massive efforts on behalf of the leftists made absolutely no difference. Why? Because Bruce's fans (and I am one of the biggest) are men. Men are not moved by celebrity -- women are.

Think not? Just ask yourself who the gossip magazines are geared towards. Ask yourself how many men would watch a political show where the "experts" are Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar? Ask yourself who gossips.

Oprah's earned respect for her lifelong climb combined with her emotional appeal and her target audience makes her one celebrity whose endorsement might well make a difference.

30 comments:

Unknown said...

It will be interesting to see what impact Oprah will have. She can sell books can she get someone elected? Time will tell...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I used to watch her on morning TV in Baltimore w/Richard Sherr. She's a "safe" liberal white-woman's black friend. And for 99% of liberal white-woman viewers, she's the only black person they know.

If she were white, you'd be saying "Oprah, who????"

Evan Sayet said...

Read Farmer's response folks and come to recognize that Democrats are racists. They HATE black people. Think that if they aren't illiterate and don't speak "ebonics," if they aren't gangsta's and criminals then they aren't "really black."

Anonymous said...

hahaha...what must the "reasoning" process behind this irrational blurt be? One crackpot reads another and comes up with...well, whaddya think, FOLKS?

Evan Sayet said...
Read Farmer's response folks and come to recognize that Democrats are racists. They HATE black people. Think that if they aren't illiterate and don't speak "ebonics," if they aren't gangsta's and criminals then they aren't "really black."

Anonymous said...

Demo-Rats are the most racist people on the planet

Anonymous said...

Duh, yeah sage,,, you said it so it must be right, huh? Why are all those blacks and latinos overwhelmingly democrat...are you saying they're stupid...you racist scumbags?

Anonymous said...

Like floyd, they're racists AND stupid. The two go hand in hand.

Anonymous said...

sage said...
Like floyd, they're racists AND stupid. The two go hand in hand.

So them nigrahs and wetbax is all elstoopeedo, eh, sage? The pig comes out and wants us to see a gazelle...harhar...lotsa luck expanding that GOP vote beyond white bigots. We need more honest oinkers.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Der ju habbin' it. The lib cain't juse the N' word enuff! De racists liberals be as stoopid as ju!

Anonymous said...

Sage explains why the GOP is The All White Party...

LOL! Der ju habbin' it. The lib cain't juse the N' word enuff! De racists liberals be as stoopid as ju!

Anonymous said...

So them nigrahs and wetbax is all elstoopeedo, eh, sage?

YOU said that. I only said that the 'racist' democrats were.

...and why is the DNC STILL the KKK Party

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, has said repeatedly over the years that he joined the notorious anti-black hate group the Ku Klux Klan during World War II - not because he was a racist - but because the Klan had taken a strong stance against communism, a system of government that then existed only in the Soviet Union.

But Byrd's KKK alibi doesn't stand up to even the most cursory historical scrutiny, as a World War II veteran pointed out to NewsMax.com Wednesday.

"When Byrd said he joined the Klan, it couldn't have been famous for being anti-Communist, since in 1943 the Soviet Union was our crucial ally in World War II," said our source, who served in Air Force, then known as the Army Air Corps, in preparation for the Normandy invasion.

"In 1943 Franklin Roosevelt was still calling Stalin 'Uncle Joe'," he added. "And I remember U.S. military maps that showed the Red Army's advances toward Berlin, which was something we were all happy about."

Further puncturing Sen. Byrd's KKK alibi, the World War II vet recalled, "There would have been no reason for any patriotic American to have been anti-Communist in 1943 - because we were doing everything we could to help the Reds beat Hitler on the Eastern Front."

In fact, anti-communism didn't emerge as a genuine force in American politics until 1947, with the outbreak of the Cold War - four years after Byrd says he left the Klan. Two weeks ago the West Virginia Democrat's press secretary Tom Gavin said his boss had belonged to the Klan for only "a number of months."

It was during this period that Byrd - supposedly by then an EX-Klansman - was advising Grand Imperial Wizard Samuel Green on whom to appoint to important posts in the hierarchy of the hate group. In a letter to Green, Byrd urged, "the Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

A year later in 1948, Byrd opposed President Truman's initiative to integrate the Armed Forces - and he did so using the language of a very much active Klansman.

The powerful Senate Democrat vowed then that he would "never submit to fight beneath that banner (the American flag) with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

"If Byrd said he thought the Klan's main job was fighting communism, he's either not being honest about why he joined - or he was a Klansman a lot longer than he now wants to admit," said the World War II vet.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha...Robert Byrd sixty years ago....hahahahahaha puh thet eek

freek

ajgentile said...

"Why are all those blacks and latinos overwhelmingly democrat...are you saying they're stupid..."

They are Democrats because the Dems are the party of promises and hand-outs. Minorities vote Dem because the Dems tell them, "We know you are disadvantaged. Vote for us and we'll help you (welfare, foodstamps, tax cuts, affirmative action).

Republicans come at it from the other side: "You are disadvantaged, yes. But so was everyone at some point in history. We, too, will help you -- by providing an infrastructure where, by your own efforts, you can achieve success."

Human nature is: Achieve as much as possible by using the least amount of energy. Democrats provide this structure for minorities via social programs and entitlements.

Anonymous said...

KKK Kleagle Robert Byrd (D) is President pro tempore of the United States Senate of the 110th United States Congress, a position that puts him third in line of presidential succession, behind Vice President Dick Cheney and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He held this post also in 1989–1995, briefly in January 2001, and in June 2001 – January 2003.

Anonymous said...

AGoofygentile tries to tell us...
Republicans come at it from the other side: "You are disadvantaged, yes. But so was everyone at some point in history. We, too, will help you -- by providing an infrastructure where, by your own efforts, you can achieve success."

Yar...tell us all about that "infrastructure" you provide...does it look anything like a gallows? No, it's dems who provide the structure...by outlawing your Jim Crow laws so everyone has a chance. Hey, we're still laughing about that pathetic sixty year old story about Byrd...you guys aint got much else going these days...wow

Anonymous said...

Yep, he's reformed. Too bad this alcoholic keeps back-sliding.

He says he left the organization after just a few months. But five years later he wrote to the Klan's Imperial Wizard in Georgia urging that racist group was needed "in every state in America."

Another matter that bears looking into is Byrd's role as a Kleagle, which meant that he was paid $10 per head for each new recruit he brought to the organization.

How many recruits did the top Democrat bring to the domestic terrorist group? And if Byrd himself didn't personally participate in any cross-burnings or lynchings, what about the new members he brought in?

In another letter written around the same time that was unearthed last year by columnist Michelle Malkin, Byrd vowed never to fight in the military "with a Negro by my side."

"I should rather die a thousand times and see old glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again," the ex-Klansman pledged, "than see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen of the wilds."

Anonymous said...

Byrd, the former exalted cyclops of the KKK, joined with other Southern and border state Democrats to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964, personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours — a move he now says he regrets...

...probably because he had a weak bladder...

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm joined the Klan in '42 and still holdie darkie down in '64.

Yeah, he's reformed. LOL!

I hope Pelosi and Reid BOTH speak at his "retirement dinner"...

ajgentile said...

Tsk, tsk Izzycapowicz. I present facts and sound philosophy. You offer nothing but partisan spew.

"Jim Crow Laws"? Are you kidding? Point A: This is 2007. America continues to evolve and right the wrongs of its history. Many other countries don't do this.

Point B: The Jim Crow laws that you so quickly rattle off your fingers were a product of the largely DEMOCRATIC South during Civil War Reconstruction. It was Northern Democrats and Republicans who fought to overturn them.

Look up your facts before you regurgitate information that you read on your left-wing web sites or that you heard from your "cool friend" at Starbucks.

*sigh* This is too easy.

Anonymous said...

Man lays on the street and gets his ass kicked saying: Look up your facts before you regurgitate information that you read on your left-wing web sites or that you heard from your "cool friend" at Starbucks.
*sigh* This is too easy.

Yeah, in ancient history the dems were also racist...those are the southern democrats who all TURNED REPUBLICAN SIXTY YEARS AGO, goofball, and voted for STROM THURMOND...about the time Byrd abandoned them. But why talk to us...git out and straighten dem darkies out...hahaha...lotsa luck with that...and don't get your pathetic pink ass kicked...they all hate you honky pigs, ya know...I wonder why that is.

Anonymous said...

Math challenged says Hmmmm joined the Klan in '42 and still holdie darkie down in '64.

2007 minus 64...dat be bout fifty three years...is he making our case for us? Tellya what lads...you're simple boys and need some hep...we're gonna give you the Byrd...heh heh. Lessee the inroads you can make with that in the BLACK COMMUNITY...so long suckahs

Anonymous said...

Try the math again izzy! LOL!

...and if the racists all switched to the RNC, why didn't Byrd?

Because the DNC PROMOTED him!

Pathetic, huh!

Anonymous said...

Ooooooooooh, did Iz make a typo...they gotta grasp at something ...he didn't GOGOP because he grew up and left the racists behind in your party...simpleguy. But WAIT, ONE current GOPiggy, Trent for Rent Lott to trot just resignated today toady...word is he's up for CURRENT Grand Kleagle...hahaha you mutts are too easy...admit you're honky, trailer trash and be proud...you aint goan convince nobody noway...like the black man sez...c'mere whitey, I got sumpin fer you...and it aint my vote.

Anonymous said...

you mean 10 typo's in a row, don't you floyd "f-i-f-t-y t-h-r-e-e"

Bejesus, you are d-u-m-b!

Anonymous said...

Well, it appears the same silly people are making the same silly, ungrounded statements here as on the other threads. I guess anyone with integrity and honest reasoning has already jumped the sinking conservative ship. Your "rule" has been the most sustained sting of disasters and folly anyone has ever seen. There must be some inkling of that isn't there. I see the last comment is about some guy saying fifty three instead of forty three...wow...that's high level stuff...well, I guess you go with what you've got, and you ain't got much.

Anonymous said...

Yah, I find such maddamadical hijinks to be weeeeery tellink.

Anonymous said...

mee3,

Cus if'n u can't do simple math, u kain't reckon' nothin' keerectly, let alone cipher.

Anonymous said...

Pooor Vingbats...dey have nuddink but this eyerevulant mistatement to clink to...tellink, most tellink. Tings is very dark for dem dis Christmas. A lump of coal for dem all. Have you all heard uff my star vars fantasy?

Whiskey said...

Republicans voting coalition is that of middle-working class whites.

Dems is that of upper-class whites and various ethnic groups, mostly Mexican and Black along with Gays, various other interest groups.

Politics is all about winners and losers in the pocketbook.

Reps offer opposition to affirmative action because working and middle class whites lose and Blacks and Mexicans win ("Latino" means largely, Mexican, as that is the largest ethnicity/national origin by far in that classification).

As White population percentage decreases, the cost of Affirmative Action rises. Mexican nationals coming over to say, California, are instantly eligible for Affirmative Action remedies, and can often form (naturally) exclusionary, discriminatory social networks. As a practical matter Affirmative Action means Mexican and Black students will take away limited UC spots from white students of greater test scores / grades. Lowering lifetime wages / earning power of white kids who miss out and raising that of Mexican and Black kids who "win."

Winners and losers. This explains the Republican Party's total lack of appeal to non-White ethnic groups. The Republican Party is responsive more or less to it's white base which is economically hurt by AA and will be hurt MORE as the "cost" goes up by ever-larger places, positions, and opportunities closed off by 'minority' ethnic groups making up the majority of the Population. It's a marginal cost issue.

This is IMHO not a "racist" issue but one of pure winners and losers. And asking whites to consistently and increasingly "lose" is a non-starter for those without compensating high earnings. It's why Liberals are rich or believe they will become rich.

As for women, they seem hard-wired for status/power/celebrity. This should not surprise anyone who accepts that evolution acts on all living things, including humans. The evolutionary payoff for hard-wiring women for status (as in nearly all female mammals) is self-evident.

Men on the other hand want flat hierarchies since only a few will be dominant males.

This simple fact explains most of the male-female tensions inherent in societies across the globe.

Anonymous said...

Interesting observations, whiskey.