Would you vote for Oprah?

Liz Lemon hallucinating about Oprah.

Liz Lemon hallucinating about Oprah.

Sources say Oprah Winfrey is “actively thinking” about running for president. Of the United States.

Not long after that broke, former Nikki Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey tweeted this question:

Remind me to ask Rob sometime how you set up a tweet like that. Now, back to the topic…

I answered “wut idk,” because I really don’t know. It would depend on the office she was running for (since Rob said “any”), who was running against her, and on me learning a lot more about her.

Having never watched her show (beyond that clip of Tom Cruise going nuts, which I think all America has seen) or read her magazine, and having certainly never heard her political views, I just don’t know. The longest exposure I’ve ever had to her was that episode of “30 Rock” when Liz Lemon took a tranquilizer before flying and hallucinated that Oprah was in the seat next to her.

I do assume (unless I learn some really bad stuff about her) that I would vote for her over Donald Trump for pretty much anything. That’s because while I don’t know of any great positive qualifications she has for the presidency, I’m also ignorant of any negatives. Whereas I’ve never seen a person in high office with more negatives than Trump.

Last time I looked, one person had answered Rob in the affirmative, three of us had answered idk, and the rest were negative. I wonder what makes those five people so sure they would never vote for this woman, for any office? Maybe they know of huge negatives I don’t know about, but I sort of doubt that…

26 thoughts on “Would you vote for Oprah?

  1. Karen Pearson

    Over Trump? Any day or night of the week. Otherwise I would prefer a person more qualified for the presidency. But, I’d certainly consider her for an advisory position to the president, probably an advisor on the domestic rather than foreign side, because I think that she’s more knowledgeable there.

  2. Claus2

    Don’t worry Brad, according to Will Folks, Nikki Haley believe’s Trump will only run for one term and is lining herself up to be the Republican candidate.

  3. Burl Burlingame

    Always a choice between the lesser of two weevils, innit?
    I will say that Oprah’s main gig is a daily chat show that deals with the issues of the day, but isn’t overtly political. So she knows what’s goin’ on.

    1. Claus2

      Maybe we can get Dr. Phil to run as a Republican. Or maybe Maury Povich… “MAURY, MAURY, MAURY!!!”

    2. Claus2

      So instead of phones she’ll end her first State of the Union address with, “You get a Prius, you get a Prius, you get a Prius…. everyone gets a Prius!!!”.

  4. Phillip

    Just stop already, America, with the superficiality and celebrity-worship. That goes for any ideology. For once I agree with Claus2.

    However, if we have to go down that road, I personally will be pulling for a Gregg Popovich/Steve Kerr ticket in 2020.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Oh, I agree with the sentiment regarding celebrities. And before the election of the reality TV star/pro wrestling hall of fame honoree, I’d have snorted in derision at any suggestion that a talk-show host would run for president — even Dick Cavett, smart as he was.

      But the bar has now been lowered SO far that it doesn’t sound as absurd as it did before Nov. 8, 2016.

      In that sense, Trump has made me more open-minded. So, you know, yay Donald…

    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      And I’ll confess I had to look up Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr — even though I like basketball slightly more than I do football. (Although not professional basketball — I can sometimes work up enthusiasm for the college game. And even then, I can’t name any coaches beyond Frank Martin and Coach K. And Dawn Staley, of course.)

      Speaking of football, here’s another Tweet from Rob Godfrey today that I particularly appreciated:

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          As I said in the post, he used to be Nikki Haley’s spokesman. That’s when I started following him. His is one of the 593 feeds I follow…

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              No, it means I have a steady stream of interesting stuff coming in.

              It’s a modest number; some people follow thousands. I deliberately keep mine under 600. Whenever I go over that, I go in and unfollow some people, weeding out the less interesting and/or those who don’t post regularly. So basically, the stream gets better all the time…

  5. Juan Caruso

    Wake up, people, the story is not about Oprah running for POTUS — although a primary against Bernie Sanders would be immensely entertaining.

    The silly publicity, as some of you have probably guessed, is designed to pit a top-rated entertainer against Trump after he just bragged about his own enertainment celebrity in hopes he will tweet something defamatory about beloved Oprah to his own regret politically.

    The problem is with such gambit is it smacks of desperation and will obviously fail Trump’s NYC smell test. A better poll might ask, what, if anything will Trump say about Oprah running against him?

    My guess is that Trump will say something to the effect that Oprah would be make a far superior candidate to crooked Hillary. And aside from left-wingers, his supporters will certainly agree.

  6. Burl Burlingame

    Of course the best person for the POTUS job is Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

    Oprah has built a career out of empathy for other people, which is not something you can say about Mr. Trump.

    Celebrities have as much right to run for office as anyone else. And like anyone else, they should start with neighborhood boards or city councils.

  7. but

    The celebrity-for-POTUS thing is hardly new. Reagan was an actor when he ran for governor. Ultimately he became president. Every 4 years we have never-been-elected to-anything candidates run for commander in chief. Steve Forbes, Michael Caine, Carly Fiorina, Ross Perot are a few that come to mind.

  8. Dave

    Have “certainly never heard her political views”? Umm…weren’t you the editorial page editor at The State in 2007 when Oprah had a huge rally with Barack Obama at Williams-Brice Stadium?!

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Yep. Although I’d forgotten that until Amanda Alpert Loveday Tweeted this yesterday:

      But even if I had remembered it, I would still say I don’t know her views. I don’t recall anything she said at that event — I wasn’t there, and the coverage I read didn’t tell me anything memorable.

      Or are you saying the mere fact she was there to support Obama tells me her views on the issues? I don’t accept that. I endorsed McCain in that election, but if he hadn’t been in it, I’d have endorsed Obama — as we did in his primary. Put those two facts together, and it doesn’t give you enough for you to know my political views — unless you’re a student of UnParty thought, and not many people are….

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