oprah for president speech sparks fevered speculation
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Oprah for president? Speech sparks fevered speculation

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Oprah for president? Speech sparks fevered speculation

Actress and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey delivered a rousing.
New York - Arab Today

Could Oprah Winfrey run for president? Hollywood, liberals and ardent fans are abuzz with speculation that the billionaire chat show queen is harboring White House ambitions after an impassioned Golden Globes speech.

Winfrey used her speech to praise women who have shared their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, and to declare that "a new day is on the horizon" for girls and women.

"When that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure they become leaders that take us to the time where nobody has to say 'me too' again," Winfrey said, referring to the #MeToo social media movement raising awareness about sexual harassment.

Winfrey was raised in poverty by a single mother and went on to host the top-rated talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for 25 years before ending it in 2011.

"I want to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue."

Hollywood's loathing of Trump and bafflement that a crass-talking reality star with no previous government experience could win the presidency have fueled talk of well, why not another television star, only one with the "right" politics?

 

While Winfrey herself has never stated any cut-and-dried desire to run for office - reportedly saying "I don't - I don't" backstage at the Globes when asked if she planned to run - her longtime partner suggested that she could be persuaded.

"It's up to the people," Stedman Graham was quoted as telling The Los Angeles Times. "She would absolutely do it."

"She launched a rocket tonight. I want her to run for president," Meryl Streep told The Washington Post. "I don't think she had any intention (of declaring). But now she doesn't have a choice."

CNN quoted two anonymous "close friends" as saying Winfrey was "actively thinking" about a presidential run although stressing that she had not made up her mind.

If the speculation is wishful thinking, Winfrey's fame and wealth, extraordinary personal story overcoming poverty, teenage rape and pregnancy to build a $2.6 billion fortune and Oscar-nominated acting career, would stack up nicely in her favor.

"I slept on it and came to the conclusion that the Oprah thing isn't that crazy," tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to Barack Obama, the president whom Winfrey was credited with helping to elect in 2008.

A March 2017 poll by Quinnipiac University that handed Trump a 41 percent job approval rating, said 52 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Winfrey.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV that same month, she hinted that Trump's lack of government experience, had recalibrated her own thoughts. "I thought, 'Oh gee, I don't have the experience, I don't know enough.' And now I'm thinking, 'Oh.'"

"WOULD SHE WANT TO?"

Three months later, Winfrey tweeted to her 41 million followers a link to a New York Post editorial that trumpeted her as the Democrats' best hope of beating Trump in 2020.

"You need a star - a grand, outsized, fearless star whom Trump can neither intimidate nor outshine," ran the editorial. "She can do it - in theory. The question is: Would she want to?"

"Thanks for your VOTE of confidence!" responded Winfrey on Twitter.

Raised in Nashville, Milwaukee and Mississippi, she was raped as a 14-year-old by an uncle and became pregnant, until she miscarried the baby.

After college, she went into journalism before reigning for 25 years as queen of the US talk show, ushering in an era of confessional television before becoming the first black woman to own a television network.

At the start of the Golden Globes on Sunday, host Seth Meyers playfully encouraged Winfrey to run against Trump. Becoming the first black woman to accept the Cecil B. De Mille lifetime achievement award, her speech wove together gender, poverty and race.

"For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men," she said to a standing ovation. "So I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon."

Would the electorate be ready to put not just another television star but another political outsider in the White House?

"There's a feeling among many in the country that prior political experience is actually a deficit," said Cindy Rosenthal, political science professor at the University of Oklahoma.

But if politics is a money person's game, then the odds are still out.

"There is money around for Oprah, Michelle Obama and George Clooney - but the odds suggest The Donald is going to be hard to beat," said Rupert Adams, spokesman for global betting chain William Hill.

 

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

oprah for president speech sparks fevered speculation oprah for president speech sparks fevered speculation

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

oprah for president speech sparks fevered speculation oprah for president speech sparks fevered speculation

 



GMT 13:23 2012 Saturday ,07 July

Syria shells Wadi Khaled: 3 killed, 9 wounded

GMT 17:45 2016 Monday ,18 April

School Olympics embody state's future vision

GMT 15:30 2017 Tuesday ,11 April

Church attacker denies his death

GMT 21:43 2012 Monday ,20 February

AUC remembers Omar Mohsen at the graduation

GMT 12:47 2017 Friday ,06 January

Daesh militants kill 4 soldiers near Iraq's Tikrit

GMT 21:13 2017 Monday ,06 February

UN: Afghan civilian casualties rose 3 percent in 2016

GMT 22:30 2014 Tuesday ,30 December

Jordanian senate passes income tax draft law

GMT 14:29 2016 Saturday ,29 October

Yuksel offers top-notch engineering services

GMT 02:36 2017 Friday ,03 February

Tunisian journalists executed, says Daesh suspect

GMT 10:32 2015 Saturday ,28 March

World's first 'Otaku' summit opens in Japan

GMT 09:04 2015 Thursday ,05 November

New Zealand: Text of TPP free trade pact released

GMT 04:35 2015 Wednesday ,18 March

'Gaza Man' app fights Israeli aggression

GMT 00:19 2017 Monday ,27 March

3 women jailed for prostitution in spa

GMT 15:49 2017 Sunday ,15 January

Trudeau: Oil sands must be phased out
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday