A surprise: Oprah pays a real cost for supporting Barack Obama

(UPDATE: This Ticket item has aroused so much interest, traffic and hundreds of comments that a new one has been published this morning. After you've read this item and are ready to go to the new one, just click here to read the reactions of hundreds of Oprah fans and former fans. Thanks for reading.)

Most of the attention on the O2 effect -- Obama and Oprah -- has been focused on how much the daytime TV cult leader helped her home state senator by endorsing him and appearing at all those rallies in Iowa and South Carolina with Barack and Michelle.

The 54-year-old Chicago TV hostess certainly helped raise a hefty chunk of change by loaning out her estate for that Obama fundraiser last summer.

Oprah Winfrey has long enjoyed an immense popularity tied to her long-running daytime TV show, which started in 1986, and helped give her favorable ratings around 78% by 1996. So well known is she that one name will suffice, as in our headline.

In one 1999 survey of the most admired and respected 20th-century women, Oprah (26%) came in only second to Mother Teresa (33%), who didn't have her own TV show. And in 2003 a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 60% thought Oprah was a more powerful woman than someone named Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and senator, who drew only 28%.

Fourteen months ago, a Gallup/USA Today poll found 74% of Americans had a favorable view of the TV personality.

Then on May 1 last year, Oprah announced during....

the Larry King show that she was, for the first time, going to throw her considerable weight behind a political candidate -- Obama.  King's suspenders nearly snapped.

“I think," she told old Lar, "that my value to him, my support of him, is probably worth more than any check.” Although, to be honest, her estimated $2.5 billion in wealth could buy an awful lot of TV ads in Indiana. It might even be able to purchase the Hoosier State. 

But little attention has been paid to the effect of Obama on Oprah. Now along comes Costas Panagopoulos, an assistant professor of political science at New York's Fordham University, to ask and answer just that question.

Writing at Politico.com, he suggests the aging empress of TV has paid a price for getting into the dirty business of politics with and for her man Barack. By August last year, a CBS poll found her favorable rating had plunged from 74% to 61%, still twice as good as the president but nearly a 20% drop.

Around Thanksgiving she announced that not only was she supporting Obama, but she would campaign with him and we'd see if her political recommendation carried as much weight as her book recommendations. Oprah's political travels produced a media feeding frenzy and a publicity bonanza with women routinely fainting in the front row. The campaign said her rallies produced 10,000 new volunteers.

Winfrey campaigned for Obama in Iowa, which he won, in South Carolina, where he won, and in New Hampshire, where he lost. We haven't heard much about Winfrey since the voting started. Did she realize something we're just getting?  We heard only that she left the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ several years ago, reportedly over some of his more militant sermons that Obama says he never heard.

But 10 days after the campaign media explosion her favorable rating had dropped further to 55% and her unfavorable ratings for the first time climbed to 1 in 3.

A December ABC/Washington Post poll of Democrats found 8% were persuaded by her Obama endorsement, 82% said it wouldn't matter either way and 10% said her recommendation had turned them off Obama.

Now, Panagopoulos has discovered an AOL TV popularity survey of 1.35 million Americans that found 46% said the daytime TV host who "made their day" was Ellen DeGeneres while only 19% chose Winfrey. Forty-seven percent said they'd like to have dinner with Ellen, while only 14% chose Oprah.

Apparently, neither Ellen nor Oprah were asked who they'd like to dine with.

Panagopoulos draws the conclusion that in these days of pervasive media, in reality, celebrity endorsements run the real risk of costing the celebrity more than they benefit the endorsee. So celebs may want to think twice before hitting the stump.

But then how many hundred million dollars a year does an assistant professor at Fordham pull down?

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: Newsday, Archdiocese of Colombo

Comments

[jerry]

I can honestly say I've never watched Orpah or the Ellen show. What a terrible waste of one's time. BTW, the Rev. Wright bigotry sealed the deal on Obama. He will never be President even if he beats Clinton. No way. Not now...not ever.

[doceraufmu]

20% of 74 % is 14.8%. A 13% drop is nearly a 14.8% drop. Therefore a drop from 74% to 61% is nearly a 20% drop.

Oprah usually does not endorse candidates, but when she supported a candidate for the first time, that candidate was black! This could be taken to be racism by her many white fans since she never endorsed a white candidate (e.g. Bill Clinton or John Kerry).

[coolarrow]

Oprah lost me when I realized that she was not a Christian but rather a new ager. Obama would never get my vote cause he has way too many negatives about him. He is of muslem descent(we are fighting a war against his muslem "brothers"). His middle name is Hussein(sp) which means son of mohamed if Im not mistaken. He hangs with the terrorist of the Weather Underground and he does want to talk things out with the muslim terrorist, yeah right thats gonna work. It does sound good if your an idiot. He will give this country over to the enemy. He has done nothing but divide. Maybe he has given a lot of people hope cause he has mentioned change, but what change? I know he claims to be a Christian but what is his definition of Christian. It does make a difference you know. I think the changes he wants to make would change this country so much that it would not be the same at all. And the way this country is today is so much better than anything else in this world today or in the past. Ok all you dyed in the wool Barrack Hussein Obama Jr. supporters can attack away and show your stupidity/blindness.

[BOB SCULLY]

yo, knuckleheads-it is close to 20%. actually 17.6%. think of it like this: if you used 20% of your god given brains and then started using just 10% of your brains that would be a 50% drop not a 10% drop. can you comprehend this higher math?

[Keish]

She still has 7 million veiwers a day and that has not droped so that's the real marker all this other stuff is just fodder.

[Melissa]

I'm not voting for Obama because of Oprah. I'm voting for Obama because he is the best candidate for the Presidency -- period.

And folks just need to get over Rev. Wright. Sen. Obama has his own opinions and is in this race to the WH, not Rev. Wright. Enough said. Move on, people. Plus...I trust what Sen. Obama says -- a heck of a lot more than Hillary or McCain. There's nothing I trust about them.

[Melissa]

I'm not voting for Obama because of Oprah. I'm voting for Obama because he is the best candidate for the Presidency -- period.

And folks just need to get over Rev. Wright. Sen. Obama has his own opinions and is in this race to the WH, not Rev. Wright. Enough said. Move on, people. Plus...I trust what Sen. Obama says -- a heck of a lot more than Hillary or McCain. There's nothing I trust about them.

[usherrick]

Oprah is now out in the open. Her choice to support a black candidate, her first endorsement, is obvious as a racial decision. She could have endorsed Bill Clinton many years back or some other Liberal. Maybe now a few have awoken from their fantasy of a colorblind princess as they spend their days on wasteful jibber jabber.

[Donna Gasper]

As of 4/10/08 I will no longer watch OPRAH. I have waited long enough for OPRAH to come out say Mr. Wright is Mr. Wrong ....for a Pastor, Spokes Person or Mentor for anyone in this Country. I'm not ready to go back to 1968. DJG

[It is]

60% of the times I read this article the math is right 100% of the time. Wow.... I hope the statisticians that think 74% to 61% is a 13% change don't work for my insurance company. If they did and I had a 74% chance of dying and cut that chance in half.... according to them I would have only reduced my chances by 37%. If I reduce the chances of dying 50% I want to know about it at least 61% of the time. Either way they would only reduce my premium -4.2%.

[lambee-pie]

Joey.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Perfect. I totally agree with you.
Another thing that I noticed regarding Oprah O'bigot booster: many years ago I began watching her body language and noticed that everything seems to be about her. She is jaded and insincere,self absorbed and disingenuious.
I made my decision after careful study to quit watching her.
Then when she backed obambi O'bigot, I knew she was what I had suspected all along.
Whack job.

All the money in the world can't buy you class. Ask teddy kennedy-Clintern -teddy turner-juan why the long face-kerry- /TttttEEEEErrrrraAAAAAAssssaaaakerry...pass the ketchup...BABs...hilton...spears....jackson....ojojojojojojoj...
shrillary.....

But Mitt and Fred and George and George and Cheney and Riceand The Nuge..and Laura and Reagan and Mother Theresa and C. Thomas and Scalia and Roberts...they have money and class.

[Peter]

I could never understand how these so-called "celebrities" could be stupid enough to state their politics and try and cajole others to follow their political views. The Springsteens of the world, the American hating Sean Penn, the Larry Davids and on and on and so many others who immediately lose 50% of their audience because they couldn't keep their mouths shut.
Their politics is nobody's business but their own. They are not experts on foreign policy or anything else.
They are either singers or actors, for God's sake and yet they have the gall and utter arrogance to spout their half assed beliefs as if they had any understanding of what is going on in the real world , yet in their stultified minds, living in their ephemeral world where reality simply does not exist, they think they have an impact on what real people think.

Watch the smart ones- those who say nothing- they're the ones we will be remembering - not the clowns we have now.

[ed]

I guess Uncle Hant is right, Oprah does look like 500 lbs of bear liver in a plastic bag

www.fredoneverything.net

[sog]

The professor's study may be worthless, but there's nothing wrong with his math. It's kind of amazing that so many people can't understand that a change from 74% to 61% is a loss of almost 20% (actually closer to 18%.) If her popularity went from 74% to 37%, she would only be half as popular as she was - a 50% loss.

[Michele]

I'm sick of Oprah. She's everywhere, in our face 24/7. Thank God for Ellen DeGeneres.

[brian77]

hey guys, the difference between 74% and 61% is 18%, which is nearly 20% as stated.

[Tropics]

Oprah may not have endorsed anyone before quite the way she has Obama, but I'd venture a guess that the free air time and 'friendship' that she gave Arnuld and Maria didn't hurt him in the govenator sElection.

Oprah proved that she has a big old racist chip on her shoulder when that clothing store wouldn't say open late for her majesty. God forbid that the little people may want to leave work on time. Why, why ,why....... it had to be because she was black. It can't be because she's an asshole with a sense of entitlement.

[Jeff]

'had plunged from 74% to 61%, still twice as good as the president but nearly a 20% drop." Since when does 13% magically round up to 20%?'

74% to 61% is a 13 percentage point drop. 13 is 20% of 74.

[Roger Kissimmee]

Well this is very interesting. The majority of Oprah Viewers are probably Clinton Fans. Were these housewives turned off by Oprah because she backed a man, instead of a woman ?

Its odd to me that Hillary Fans love watching comedic lesbians. That they make the housewives day. Nothing against lesbians for sure, I am gay myself, but its odd how housewives love talk show lesbians. I mean come on, first there were the Rosie Fans, then when Rosie went off the air, they were with Oprah (sexuality uncertain) and now they are fans of Ellen. Hmm , what does that say about Hillary's sexuality? Can it be that housewives can sniff out a lesbian over the airwaves? Do they have HD gaydar ? Hmm. I do not really want to find out, but if you do, there is a new book out. Obamomaniacs are from Mars, and Hillary Clintonites are from URANUS. Available at bookstores near you.

[EBOB]

FOR YOU MATH IDIOTS FOLLOW ME NOW

74% X 20% = 14.8% 74% - 61% = 13%

13% TO 14.8% = NEARLY 20%

NOW GOT BACK TO SCHOOL AND GET EDUCATED IN MATH

[Dev]

I'm not sure of anything the Press reports anymore. They rip people apart or create mythical creatures. It's always one extreme or the other. Every poll seems to tell a different story. I guess we basically only know what we personally think or believe.

Maybe her support of Obama hurt her or maybe it was just that she has been around awhile and Ellen has less baggage and is lighter and seems more fun to hang out with. Fame always has it's ups and downs. Phil Donohue was once King of the talk shows before Oprah and then she took the lead...maybe it is just the way things work. People get bored and more on to something they perceive as new and different. They literally just change the channel.

[Brock]

Read his book. It will make you vomit,,

[Mike In Texas]

Oprah has better judgement than Obama

Oprah quit that "church of hate" immediately.

Oprah for President.

[Earl]

It's true that Orka Windbag still has a hug following of daytime TV Zombies

make me glad to know that are a nation of McZombies
for it can be a paradise for the armed and living
just can't let them slowly mass up on us while playing or faraging.

[Big Willie]

This set of comments reinforces something that I have been told for years, "Liberals are not only ignorant but proud of it." Continuing to argue about something after you have been proven wrong and corrected (the entire percentage argument) is just sad. Liberals don't want to be questioned or corrected and if you try to set something straight you are a fascist. Also, Oprah's problems go much deeper than her Obama endorsement. Just check out her anti-Christian programming on XM Radio.