Multiple O's

Oprah Winfrey held her much-anticipated fund raiser for her fellow O-man last night in Santa Barbara.

Oprah's got just as much right as anyone else to distribute her opinions, money and influence on a political race about race. I get that.

But I still find her involvement here to be a bit disturbing. While one of my three loyal readers might correct me, I've been scanning my memory of a recent race when a more valuable, non-compulsory endorsement was thrown into a Presidential campaign.

Presidents Reagan and Clinton, both very popular at the ends of their reigns, endorsed their veeps in their bids to hand off the torch but only their failure to do so would have been newsworthy. (In fact, of course, the limited role Bubba played in Albert's run was exponentially more costly than anything that went on in Florida.)

Race-baiting bigots Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson like to fancy themselves kingmakers whose blessings are necessary for someone running for the Democratic nod, but their influence is not even in the same universe as the queen of Harpo Productions.

But Oprah just seems different to me. I work with some women who seem to just swear by anything that comes out of her mouth and have generalized her celebrity to an overall belief about Oprah's goodness and wisdom.

And she didn't have to be involved here. While she has had the candidates and their wives come through her studios in the past two national elections, she was not taking the explicit role of an advocate for an individual candidate.

I don't think it's possible to overestimate the importance of her endorsement here. This will remain a story throughout at least the primary season.