Break A Deal, Face The Wheel

Oprah Winfrey is a brilliant businesswoman. In a 21 year long career in the national spotlight, she has amassed a net worth in the neighborhood of 2 BILLION dollars. To make that much money in what is relatively a short amount of time is an impressive feat.

That said, one has to wonder how a woman who is so intelligent about what her core audience and American in general wants can be so STUPID when it comes to the subject of Barack H. Obama (to be known henceforth as "Senator Carter from Illinois").

When Oprah burst on the scene in 1986, she managed to tap into an audience that did not feel served by programming at that time--namely middle-class working women and middle-class stay at home mothers. These women tuned into that program and BAM--they found a voice on television they could identify with on some issues--trying to balance work and family life; how to handle sexist attitudes in the workplace; how to organize a life so that you had some breathing room. Women had found a role model.

As the years went by, this covenant Oprah had with her audience endured. They were with her through the yo-yo diets. They were with her when she bankrolled movies that no one wanted to see. They even signed up to the book club and made a lot of writers pretty wealthy. In the process, the lady from Chicago began accumulating money...a LOT of money.

Funny thing happened to the old girl on the way to the bank. The more money she earned, the less she was a working woman trying to juggle life and the more she was "black". When Oprah had less money, she spoke in universal themes that most women could grasp. Once she crossed the portal into media elite--BAM--Oprah decided she was "black" and decided she wanted to view life through that prism. At this point, we bring Senator Carter from Illinois onstage (cue "Jesus Christ Superstar" on the audio system).

For someone who was normally so savvy about people, it was disheartening to see this woman captivated by a "Slick Rick" routine. To see a man who is long on looks (no one fills a stylishly tailored empty suit like him), long on savoir faire (cover of a man's lifestyle mag in a languid pose--BRILLIANT idea), long on charisma (charms the press into not digging up his voting records where the word "Present" keeps popping up where "Aye" or "No" should be, and says he wants bipartisanhip while voting with the most hard-core partisans in the Democratic caucus in the Senate--the man wouldn't know a principled stand if it bit him on the ass), but WOEFULLY short on ideas he wants to say aloud ("we have a policy white paper on that subject on our website) play the old girl like a Stradivarius. He talked about public service and community uplift--all those empty phrases that rich guilty white folks sing when they feel guilty about being rich guilty white folks). What does Oprah do? She doesn't help the poor women of color down the street--she helps the poor women of color on a different continent and does do-squat diddly for the poor on the south side of Chicago--"screw Cook County. I'm off to Western Cape". I guess she only wants to uplift those she doesn't have to drive past in her limousine.

Senator Carter from Illinois is a character many working women are familiar with--he's the slick young hotshot who has never had it professionally tough (his Democratic primary opponents bombed out in the 2004 primary, and he drew the best of all general election cards in having professional psychotic Alan Keyes as his Republican challenger) who sails into the office, schmoozes the boss, and takes the job these women have worked in some cases years to earn. When this man planted his oh-so-stylish ass on her couch, Oprah lifted her leg and took a leak on her core audience--in other words, it was a case of "He's fabulous. I'm black. Piss off, girls".

Do you children know what happened next? Well, after our girl's Iowa speech in favor of Senator Carter's acid trip masquerading as a political campaign, the nasty-grams came skipping into Oprah Bunker. Funny how she hasn't been out front in shilling for him since then. I wonder why. Hmm....maybe it was because a lot of these women who have stood by our girl for the past two decades dropped her a note to the effect of "Bitch--we are the ones who made you. We suggest you remember that as you fly around in your Gulfstream".

Just a thought.....