Oprah Winfrey could be the best presidential candidate but the worst president
ANALYSIS: Oprah Winfrey could be the best possible candidate for the next US election, experts say, but she could also be a failure if she is elected.
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WITH her super celebrity status, her rags to riches story, her ability to deliver compassionate, stirring speeches and her strong support among women Oprah Winfrey could be the ideal Presidential candidate.
But if she does get elected to the White House, she could then become the worst person for the job, experts say.
The rumour mill has gone into overdrive speculating that Winfrey could run for US president as a Democratic candidate in 2020, after her incredible speech at the Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles.
The White House is also not afraid of Winfrey making a run for it, after Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One today: “We welcome the challenge, whether it be Oprah Winfrey or anybody else. Regardless of who’s on the ballot, regardless who decides to run against this President, they are going to have to face a President who has record-setting achievements in record-setting time.”
Given her status as a household name, the self made billionaire would not have to reveal whether she will run for the presidency until this time next year, says James Cahill, the Deputy Editor of Election Watch at the Melbourne School of Government.
But her TV celebrity could be both a blessing and a curse for her.
“It is not inconceivable that she could become President, given her name recognition, the support she has among women especially, her ability to deliver speeches and the money she would have behind her,” Cahill told News Corp Australia.
“There is no doubt she is an absolutely remarkable woman and she has been a trailblazer in so many areas but there are considerable limits to what an entertainment executive or TV professional would be capable of once she was in the White House.
“Oprah Winfrey is smart, she is tough, she is compassionate she is hardworking, but there is so much more to being President, especially behind the scenes.”
Just saw @Oprah's empowering & inspiring speech at last night’s #GoldenGlobes. Let’s all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP! #United https://t.co/vpxUBJnCl7
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) January 9, 2018
Donald Trump’s incredible and unexpected rise to US president has forever altered political norms and expectations in the world’s most powerful democracy. But his election could also open the way for Winfrey.
“Trump’s election unleashed a wave of political rage among women and we saw that in the marches after his inauguration,” Cahill said.
He points to a statistics from Emily’s List, a political action committee that aims to help elect pro-choice Democratic candidates to political office. According to the organisation in the two years leading up to Election Day in 2016, 920 women contacted the organisation. In the year after Trump was elected they were contacted by more than 25,000 women.
In tapping into that base, Winfrey may be able to garner support in the same way in which Trump did with his base in Middle America.
Trump’s campaigning was very canny and ultimately very successful but his struggles in adjusting to the diplomatic demands of the White House due to his lack of political experience and expertise has dominated headlines in the year since he was inaugurated.
Cahill says Winfrey could follow suit, if she was elected.
“She would have no problems giving speeches and leading the country in crisis and grief,” Cahill said.
“But there is a lot more to being president than that and most of it happens behind the scenes when the camera is off.
“You have to bully people. You have to influence people, Congress and countries. You have to persuade people into doing what you want them to do. Winfrey does not have any experience doing this and it is the most important part of the job.
“It’s not good for your first political job to be the hardest job in politics.”
David Smith, a Senior Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy at Sydney University, also told News Corp Australia that it’s impossible to say what Winfrey’s chances would be. He said there’s no doubt she is “immensely popular right across the country, and many people trust her on a very personal level”.
But he said she could become more of a “polarising figure” if she took on the presidential race.
“This dynamic helped Donald Trump, who was as famous but far less popular—when he became the Republican candidate, Republicans who were sceptical of him got behind him and became supporters, ultimately helping him win where it mattered. If Oprah became the Democratic candidate, she would be increasingly hated by Republicans,” he said.
“For someone who is loved by such a wide range of people, this might not hold much appeal. “And she wouldn’t be guaranteed to win against someone who managed to win the last election while losing the popular vote by 2.8 million.
“The Democratic primary could also be very bitter, as she would probably face opposition from the increasingly energised left of the party.
“Oprah may well believe she can do far more good outside of politics, where she has done so much good for so long.”
Even so, for Democrats in early voting states, and perhaps for a public that largely disapproves of President Donald Trump’s job performance, the notion of a popular media figure as a presidential candidate is not as strange as it once seemed, given the New York real estate mogul and reality TV star now in the White House.
“Look, it’s ridiculous - and I get that,” said Brad Anderson, Barack Obama’s 2012 Iowa campaign director. While he supports the idea of Winfrey running, it would also punctuate how Trump’s candidacy has altered political norms. “At the same time, politics is ridiculous right now.” Winfrey’s speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award on Sunday touched on her humble upbringing and childhood wonder in civil rights heroes.
But it was her exhortation of the legions of women who have called out sexual harassers - and her dream of a day “when nobody has to say ‘me too’ again” - that got some political operatives, in early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, thinking Winfrey might be just what the Democrats need. “I think we need more role models like her that are speaking to young women and trying to restore some hope. The election of Donald Trump was a devastating setback for little girls,” said Liz Purdy, who led Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2008 New Hampshire presidential primary campaign.
A representative for Winfrey did not reply to requests for comment but her longtime partner, Stedman Graham, told the Los Angeles Times that “it’s up to the people” whether she will be president, adding, “She would absolutely do it.”
Winfrey, 64, has become a cultural phenomenon over the past 30-plus years, born into a poor home in Mississippi but breaking through as a television news and talk show personality in the 1980s. Over 30 years, she became the face of television talk shows, starred and produced feature films, and began her own network.
Trump himself has lavished praise on Winfrey over the years, including in 2015, when he said that he would consider her as a running mate on his Republican ticket. “I like Oprah,” Trump told ABC News in June 2015. “I think Oprah would be great. I’d love to have Oprah. I think we’d win easily, actually.” It echoed comments Trump made in 1999, when he was weighing a presidential candidacy in the Reform Party. “If she’d do it, she’d be fantastic. I mean, she’s popular, she’s brilliant, she’s a wonderful woman,” Trump told CNN’s Larry King.
Some operatives think she has what it takes to be a viable presidential candidate.
“She would be a serious candidate,” said Jennifer Palmieri, former White House communications director under President Barack Obama and the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Still, while some Democrats would embrace Winfrey’s outsider-celebrity status as the party’s answer to Trump, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi noted that Winfrey, like Trump, lacks any kind of experience in government.
“I think one of the arguments for Oprah is 45,” Pelosi said, referring to Trump in shorthand for the 45th president. “I think one of the arguments against Oprah is 45.”
- with AP
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