The Big O Does CA

By Kevin Robinson in News on Sep 10, 2007 2:30PM

While the politicians in Springfield keep fighting with each other over the impending deterioration of our ability to actually get around our city, Barack Obama was getting down with Oprah Winfrey (and raising big bucks) in California this weekend.

1500 people showed up at Oprah's estate in Montecito, Calif., on Saturday night to dine on mini-hamburgers, chicken tenders, and corn on the cob, to dance to the musical stylings of Stevie Wonder, and to give money to the Obama presidential campaign. "I call my home the Promised Land because I get to live Dr. King's dream," Winfrey said, according to the Tribune. "I haven't been actively engaged before because there hasn't been anything to be actively engaged in. But I am engaged now to make Barack Obama the next president of the United States." The event is expected to raise around $3 million, and just may be the beginning of Oprah's involvement with the Obama campaign, as speculation grows of her involvement in television ads and speaking engagements on his behalf.

A friend of ours once called Oprah the black woman that white women can feel good about. As voters on the Democratic side of the electorate are confronted with the fundamental question - can a white man still be president in the United States? - it seems fitting, then, that she would step to the plate for Obama, the black candidate that has mass appeal in much of mainstream white America. All in all, the phenomenon that is the Big O, and the kinds of "Change Your Life" feel-good types that she brings with her, fit into the Obama candidacy, which has been unfortunately all too much like one big Dr. Phil episode, focusing on getting over the problems of the nation, rather than looking at the root causes.

Image via Skeptical Brotha.