Oprah's Endorsement Worth A Million Votes For Obama

Kevin Drum has an interesting post about an article which attempts to quantify the impact of Oprah Winfrey's early endorsement of Barack Obama during the Democratic presidential primary campaign. Economist Professors at the University of Maryland Craig Garthwaite and Tim Moore in their paper "The Role of Celebrity Endorsements in Politics:
Oprah, Obama, and the 2008 Democratic Primary" (pdf), the authors assert that Oprah's early endorsement resulted in approximately 1 million votes for Obama.

Candidates in major political contests are commonly endorsed by other politicians, interest groups and celebrities. Prior to the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, Barack Obama was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, a celebrity with a proven track record of influencing her fans’ commercial decisions. In this paper, we use geographic differences in subscriptions to O! – The Oprah Magazine and the sale of books Winfrey recommended as part of Oprah's Book Club to assess whether her endorsement affected the Primary outcomes. We find her endorsement had a positive effect on the votes Obama received, increased the overall voter participation rate, and increased the number of contributions received by
Obama. No connection is found between the measures of Oprah's influence and Obama's success in previous elections, nor with underlying local political preferences. Our results suggest that Winfrey’s endorsement was responsible for approximately 1,000,000 additional votes for Obama.

The Power of O, indeed!

First Lady of California Endorses Obama

A couple of days after her husband endorsed John McCain, Maria Shriver appeared at rally on Sunday afternoon at UCLA with Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama and endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign, saying:

"If Barack Obama was a state he'd be California," Shriver said, drawing roars from the crowd. "I mean, think about it: diverse, open, smart, independent, oppose tradition, innovative, inspiring, dreamer, leader."

Keith Boykin Quoted Dissing Oprah

Oh my! Black gay blogger Keith "I love Oprah Winfrey" Boykin but was quoted in Tuesday's New York Times business section ("Beyond Books: Oprah Winfrey’s Seal of Approval Goes Presidential") discounting the impact of Queen of All Media's endorsement of Barack Obama for president on Larry King's show on CNN:

Keith Boykin, a frequent commentator on CNN who was a classmate of Mr. Obama at Harvard Law School and worked in the Clinton White House, said Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement did not mean Mr. Obama was a shoo-in for president. “Oprah was behind the movie ‘Beloved,’ and it was a flop, so it’s not true that everything she touches turns to gold,” he said.

Well, first of all Keith is correct. Beloved was a hot mess. But do you really want to be quoted in the New York Times dissing a billionaire?