The Obama-Oprah Connection

Oprah Winfrey taps directly into the emotions, beliefs, buying habits and summer reading patterns of billions of women all over the world! Oprah Winfrey has the power to lay waste an entire industry with a mere utterance! She's a completely invincible, unstoppable force of nature...

-- Gin Rummy, "The Boondocks, 'Let's Nab Oprah'"

Oprah Winfrey has joined the political fray. She has decided to throw her support behind Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The question is how much of an influence will Oprah's endorsement have over the Democratic nomination. When Oprah first made the announcement, Right Wing Minister of Propaganda Sean (Goebbels) Hannity was positively giddy about the news. His "Stop Hilary Express" was almost orgasmic at the thought of the Oprah Juggernaut squaring up against the mighty Clinton Machine.

But how effective will Oprah's endorsement be? Will her voice and influence translate into votes at the primaries? It's interesting because Oprah usually seems to target white women (for the most part) in her shows. The women that usually support Oprah usually vote Democratic, and it would stand to follow that those women would vote for someone who most resembles them, in the person of Hilary Rodham Clinton. But will the apparent Clinton supporters turn their support towards Obama, because Oprah says so? Sure, Oprah can make the beef industry blink in a staring contest, and she can propel a man with an active imagination to the top of the best-seller list with his "biography", but as I asked before, can this influence and power translate into action at the polls? Can the other Democratic nominees (after all, it's not over yet) find endorsement power of their own to counter Oprah? Bill Clinton (still a beloved figure in political circles [and I still wanna smack any idiot that claimed that he was the 'first Black President' because he played the sax and got laid with women other than his wife -- but I digress]) is going to have his work cut out for him in order to put his wife into the Big Chair.

What would REALLY make the race interesting is if Obama not only benefitted from Oprah's support, but if he also took kingmaker Karl Rove's advice. Not that I agree with anything Rove does, but his dark magic helped Curious George and the Administration That Couldn't get elected. Twice. And whether you like or loathe Rove, he does offer some good points on overcoming Clinton.

It's going to be an interesting primary season.

Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury -- Raise The Double Standard!

Let's play catch-up. Not too long ago, douchebag commentator Glenn Beck caused a bit of a stir when he interviewed Congressman Keith Ellison. During the interview, Beck all but asked Ellison to take a vow of loyalty, seeing as how Ellison is a Muslim. In fact, what Beck asked and said to Ellison was this:

"prove to me that you are not working with our enemies," saying, "And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."

From that point on, I dismissed Beck as a third-rate Hannity wannabe, looking to make his bones by being "controversial." So, why am I bringing him up again? Well, because this time, Beck not only proves to be a douchebag, but he demonstrates the amazing ability to project an extreme double standard that can only be described as hypocrisy.

Mitt Romney made a "Big Speech" about how his Mormon faith will not influence the decisions he would make as President. OK, so far so good. But here's the good part. Beck had the audacity to say "Why are we going to a candidate and asking about religion?" Hm. Let I get this straight (tm -- Homey The Clown). It's OK for you to question a duly-elected representative to Congress, and ask him to convince you that he's not a terrorist, simply because he's Muslim... despite the fact that there was nothing in Ellison's record to even raise an eyebrow regarding his faith... it's OK for you to call into question whether Ellison's faith will affect his judgment and *gasp* his loyalties to the country and the citizens and constituents that he represents. But let someone question Romney about HIS faith, and now it's "aw, who cares?" As you can see, Beck is a hypocrite. I guess I should mention (if you haven't clicked on the Glenn Beck link I posted) that Beck is also a Mormon. So, the message that Beck is sending is that it's OK if I question YOUR religion in regards to politics, but don't you dare question MINE.

Here's the second part of Beck's double-standard and hypocrisy. "Who cares about religion?" Beck asks. Well, Mitt is running for President on the Republican ticket. And who is it that makes their party out to be the party of God, faith, and family values? The Republicans. Who won the election based on boogeyman-like scare tactics regarding immoralities like gay marriage (despite a war going horribly wrong across the globe)? The Republicans. Who makes the biggest (usually hypocritical) fuss about beingthe standard-bearers for what's decent in America? The Republicans. Who have the prominent Evangelical Christian ministers across the country aligned themselves with? Yep. You guessed it. When you have Right Wing nutjobs like Pat Robertson praying for the deaths of Supreme Court justices, so more "righteous" judges can be appointed, and when you have insane commentators like Ann the Coultergeist claiming represent Christianity, then it's only fair that (especially for a Republican) religious conversations will come up.

Beck can't have it both ways. He can't throw other people's faiths under the bus because he doesn't agree with them, and then shrugs his shoulders like it's no big deal when someone that shares HIS faith is also questioned. Especially in a climate where the candidate who happens to share his faith make it a habit of invoking their "faith" at almost every opportunity, usually lording it (no pun intended) over those who they feel morally superior to.