RAGGED THOTS

Oprah and Sarah sitting down for a chat? Really? One an uber-famous talk-show host, black liberal Democrat. The other an instant media lighting rod, white conservative Republican. They have hardly anything in common (well,except for both having had famous feuds with David Letterman -- Oprah's was a few years back; Palin's was earlier this year. Won't they have fun at Dave's current troubles?).

Actually, it makes perfect sense -- and shows how smart each woman is in thinking outside of the box.

Over the last presidential election cycle, America met these two public women for the "first" time -- even though one already had a world-famous "brand" name. Still, even as the country learned much more about these women than it did before, the overall experience hasn't necessarily perfect for either women.

This year -- next month, to be exact -- both women hope their shared experience in 2008 can become a mutually rewarding business experience in 2009.

The 2008 presidential campaign saw Oprah Winfrey plunge into the world of partisan politics for the first time. It was something of a risk for her to endorse Barack Obama. She had become the most successful daytime talk show host -- and arguably the wealthiest female entertainer -- by attracting a loyal following of women interested in building their self-esteem.

However, Oprah scrupulously stayed away from explicitly political issues over her two-decade career. While she was vaguely liberal, she kept her personal politics under wraps. In 2000, she had both Al Gore and George W. Bush as guests (separate shows). That all changed two years ago. Oprah publicly announce that she was supporting Obama in spring of 2007 (the two Chicago residents had been friends for years). Even so, she generally stayed out of the political spotlight until December of that year when she made an unprecedented appearance on the Iowa campaign trail with Obama.

The other woman making a debut on the national political scene in the 2008 presidential cycle was the previously little-known governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. In office barely two years at the time, she became a political and cultural phenomenon when tapped by John McCain as his vice presidential running mate in August 2008. While becoming an instant hit at the GOP Convention in September 2008, as the campaign went on, she was the controversial figure -- beloved by most conservatives while scorned by liberals and much of the media. Notably, Oprah appeared not to want Palin on her show during the campaign.

Both women may have paid a price for their historic 2008 presidential campaign involvement: One year, after her initial Obama endorsement, Oprah Winfrey saw her ratings down. That hangover seems to have continued. As a result, she's kick-started her 24th season with big-name guest stars and taking the show on the road to places like New York's Central Park and a Texas state fair.

Palin, meanwhile, apparently found the intense media spotlight too much for either her, her family, or both: She resigned as governor, immediately began cashing in on a lucrative speaking career -- and signed a big book deal.

And now, more than a year after Palin's debut, she'll finally appear on Oprah's show, the week her "Going Rogue" hits the stands. It's a masterstroke for both women. explicitlys a ready made huge audience of (primarily) women. She'll be able to talk about balancing work, family -- and politics. Oprah will, arguably, get an even larger audience than normal; it will come from conservative-leaning women who either never watched her show -- or got turned off her when she came out explictly for Obama.

But while politics might create the backdrop for their chat, the fact is that this is strictly business. They are now savvy business women who see that both their brands (and respective book sales, ratings, bank accounts, etc) getting huge spikes in a mutual broadcast appearance.

Must-see TV?

You betcha!

Labels: Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, sarah palin

# posted by Robert A. George @ 8:00 AM

So how did the Clinton campaign respond to the news that Oprah would be stumping for Sen. Obama this coming weekend? Instead of sticking to their core message, and showing the confidence of a true front-runner, they fell into the tit-for-tat trap of countering with the endorsement of the polarizing, '60s-studded Streisand--in essence, the anti-Oprah. In doing so, the Clinton camp did not just fail to blunt or dilute the O-factor, they managed to accentuate it by unwittingly suggesting Mrs. Clinton stands for--like the Streisand anthem--the way we were.

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey

# posted by Robert A. George @ 6:07 PM

Madscribe:
Normally, I try to live by the adage of my military hero, Admiral Hyman Rickover, that "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." However, as an Opinionated African-American Male Veteran that hates that whole line of garbage "He-Man Hatin' Black Earth Momma" lit, ranging from Toni Morrison to the spacey Alice Walker, I find the latest installment in Terry McMillan's "Mah Man Done Lef' Me fo' Another Man" saga to be funny as hell. Although RAG takes his fellow journalist-of-color to task in the post below for playing the race card, I think there is some merit to the argument. After all, the Black Community and the White Left have said little to nothing of Ms. McMillan's use of the F-WORD after finding out that her cradle-robbed dreamboat, the inspiration for Taye Digg's star-turn in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was gay. Yet, Ann Coulter (far right-fully so) was excoriated for same such behavior. Looks like a racial double standard to me. If it was wrong for Coulter (and it was), then it was wrong for McMillan.

Ms. McMillan, in collusion with her "Sistah In Da Struggle," Oprah "Bigger Than Jesus AND John Lennon" Winfrey, has helped to create a new Salem Witch Trial mentality among black women with the whole "Down Low" bugaboo. It was bad enough when angry hoes went after us straight bruthas in the "Color Purple" era. I guess they won't be happy until ALL black men, including the gay ones, are exterminated, castrated, or marginalized into oblivion.

Anyhoo, Ms. McMillan is claiming that her former husby's coming out of the closet has wrecked her, emotionally and professionally, to the tune of $40 Million. I expect this case to be thrown out of court, as public figures generally have less of a claim to defamation torts than Mr. Average Joe Citizen. Perhaps, Ms. McMillan, the fault lies not in the stars of Fire Island, but with thyself?

Labels: Black Chick Lit, Oprah Winfrey, Terry McMillan

# posted by Anonymous @ 9:39 PM

Scarcely a day into the New Year and the right blogosphere was already floating a new theme song:

Why oh why can't the US be more like Ethiopia?

Yes, these are the depths to which the debacle in Iraq have driven them: extolling the martial virtues of plucky little Ethiopia. Unlike we in the West, they are not o'ercast with the sickly pallor of thought and handcuffed with the legalisms that have made the West such a haven for dhimmitude, whatever that is.

Oprah also knows that some people will complain that charity should begin at home, even though she has provided millions of dollars to educate poor children in the United States, especially via her Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program. But she sees the two situations as entirely different. "Say what you will about the American educational system—it does work," she says. "If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education." And she doesn't think that American students—who, unlike Africans, go to school free of charge—appreciate what they have. "I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she says. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."

Labels: Africa, black, conservatives, liberals, Oprah Winfrey

# posted by Robert A. George @ 9:00 AM