Ironically Oprah may have hurt Obama's campaign

[Bronco Bob]

Oprah effect didn't really sway voters
Talk show host's effort might even have backfired, poll says

December 20, 2007

Oprah might just as well have stayed home and hung out with her gal pal Gayle.

It was hoped her recent appearances on the campaign trail to promote the
presidential aspirations of her friend Barack Obama would have dazzled women
voters. But noooo . . .

Or so says a new poll released Wednesday by Lifetime Networks and Zogby
International. The pollsters interviewed 500 New Hampshire women -- to look
at the views in this early primary state -- and 1,000 other women across the
nation to determine their perspectives on the upcoming presidential election.

And what the pollsters found was that Oprah made little difference in the way
women are looking at the candidates.

In fact, with some groups of women, Oprah's efforts actually backfired.

In New Hampshire, pollsters found one-third of the women under 30 said Oprah
"stumping actually made them less likely to support Obama." Seventy-three
percent of the other women said it made no difference to their campaign
choices at all.

Voters don't want "to have their entertainment figures involved in political support,"
explained Fritz Wenzel, director of communications at Zogby International.

The poll was taken during the Dec. 8 weekend when Oprah was on the stump
for Obama in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

In New Hampshire, pollsters found Clinton leading Obama by 14 points -- 39
percent to 25 percent, although 40 percent of the respondents said they still
had not made up their minds.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/hunter/706151,CST-NWS-hunter20.article

[cutthemdown]

Not to mention her and Obamas wife sat behind him while he was speaking acting like 2 girls at a rock concert. Dancing and carrying on etc is fine we all do it but even Democrats who are liberal feel that dancing and being hip have little to do with being President.

Clinton was smart he saved playing the saxophone for MTV. He didn't whip it out at a rally and start playing and getting down.

IMO Obama is sunk and has zero chance of beating Hilliary.

[Crushaholic]

Not to mention her and Obamas wife sat behind him while he was speaking acting like 2 girls at a rock concert. Dancing and carrying on etc is fine we all do it but even Democrats who are liberal feel that dancing and being hip have little to do with being President.

Clinton was smart he saved playing the saxophone for MTV. He didn't whip it out at a rally and start playing and getting down.

IMO Obama is sunk and has zero chance of beating Hilliary.

...and the Arsenio Hall show...:rofl:

[cutthemdown]

Being a saxophone player myself I always liked that Clinton played the sax.

[cutthemdown]

Also playing music forces both the mathmatical side of the brain, and the creative side of the brain to work together resulting in increased brain power.

[baja]

Also playing music forces both the mathmatical side of the brain, and the creative side of the brain to work together resulting in increased brain power.

I guess you don't play much anymore.

[cutthemdown]

I guess you don't play much anymore.

I'll cut your head on any stage, anytime.

[Spider]

I guess you don't play much anymore.

LOL thats just so wrong ....... funny though

[cutthemdown]

It was a clever rip I will give him that.

[SoCalBronco]

I played alto sax in junior high, I liked it alot, I wish I didn't give it up.

[cutthemdown]

I played alto sax in junior high, I liked it alot, I wish I didn't give it up.

The jump from JR high to H/S is a tough one for kids to make. Most schools it's just not cool to be in the band. Some schools it is but not very many. I was the only person in my school to play in the band and on the football team. After doing both I can say that music has meant way more to my life then the football has. I loved football but music has stuck with me and is something I can keep doing all my life.

One of the bands I'm playing in right now has 2 friends in it from HS band. So 20 yrs later we still have a bond and I think that is pretty cool. I can trust those 2 to the very end.

[Bronco Bob]

The old GOP political hack has an interesting claim in his column today.


Women vs. Oprah

By Robert Novak (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/author/robert_novak/)
January 12, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The absence of Oprah Winfrey from the frantic four
last days of the New Hampshire primary campaign after her heavy schedule
in Iowa backing Sen. Barack Obama may be traced to heavy, unaccustomed
post-Iowa abuse of the popular entertainment superstar by women.

Winfrey did not publicize it, but her Website was swamped with complaints
after she went to Iowa. The principal complaint was that she betrayed women
by not supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton. The criticism was described as personal.

Several of these critics identified themselves as African-Americans,
indicating that gender is more important than race for many people.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/women_vs_oprah.html


I know for a fact that an African-American woman I know at work says
she is voting for Hillary and doesn't even like Oprah.

[Rohirrim]

I wanted to play sax in the band. They made me play baritone. :pity:

[defenseman]

I prefer the B flat clarinet and a good 6 or 12 string acoustic...dman

[orinjkrush]

piano for me. keeps the brain tuned up.

[cutthemdown]

I wanted to play sax in the band. They made me play baritone. :pity:

Well Baritone actually is a cool part in big band jazz, just not the spotlight. Another thing is that schools usually have really crappy baritone saxes because they are so expensive. Poor kids ends up with a crappy instrument that even a pro couldn't play good.

[cutthemdown]

If you guys want to hear my band

http://www.myspace.com/boxcarseven

[Kaylore]

Voters don't want to have their entertainment figures involved in political support
Bad news for Democrats. Once the party of the blue collar workers, they are now a party of celebrities and academia. Most people don't identify with college professors and and the Tim Robinses of America.

[Bronco Bob]

Bad news for Democrats. Once the party of the blue collar workers, they are now a party of celebrities and academia. Most people don't identify with college professors and and the Tim Robinses of America.

Even worse for Obama, is that the beer drinkers are Hillary's base
and the wine drinkers are Obama's base. But beer drinkers outnumber
wine drinkers 2 to 1.


The Democrats
Most of the contested Democratic presidential races since 1968 have come down to one contender each from the "wine" and "beer" tracks. The beer track candidate has typically attracted economically strained voters without college degrees who tend to be somewhat more conservative on social and foreign-policy issues; the wine track contender has assembled a coalition centered on better-off, college-educated voters with fewer material concerns and more-liberal social and foreign-policy views. Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore have fit into the first group; Eugene McCarthy, Gary Hart, Paul Tsongas, and Bill Bradley into the second. Each time, the downscale candidate has beaten the upscale contender.

Through the first two contests in this cycle, exit polls show signs that the race between Clinton and Obama is re-creating that pattern, with Clinton in the Humphrey-Mondale role and Obama cast as Hart or Bradley (both of whom recently endorsed him). To underscore the picture, Clinton even recently jabbed Obama with the famous gibe that Mondale (who has endorsed her) directed at Hart: "Where's the beef?" The new twist is that Clinton, in most polls, runs more strongly among women than men.

In Iowa, Obama dominated upscale voters while beating Clinton or running even with her among most of the groups presumed to be her base -- partisan Democrats, voters earning $50,000 a year or less, even women. Obama remained strong among upscale voters in New Hampshire. But in the Granite State, Clinton restaked her claim to those core Democratic constituencies, beating him by double digits among women and Democrats, and by 8 percentage points among voters without college degrees. She defeated him soundly among seniors in both states.

If Clinton can maintain that coalition, it should favor her in many states between the coasts where college graduates constitute only a minority of the Democratic electorate, such as Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, which vote on February 5. His pattern of support should benefit him in such affluent coastal states as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia, where college graduates represent a majority of Democratic voters.

Veteran Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who is unaffiliated in the race, says that Obama, though capable of winning many states, now faces a more pressing need than Clinton to expand his coalition, especially with economic issues rising in prominence for Democratic voters. "She is winning a much more bread-and-butter coalition," Greenberg says. "The rise of the economy makes it more urgent that he expand [his appeal] if he is going to win this."

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2008/0111nj1.htm

[cutthemdown]

I really think Hilliary would make a much better President then Obama. She just seems more pragmatic. What I mean by that is I feel she would be more guided by by expirence and observation and less by feelings and emotions then Obama.

[alkemical]

I play drums...

and are we getting Obama threads like Yvonne's muslim threads?

(kidding, sorta)

[baja]

I play a bamboo flute

[alkemical]

that's not mexican-gringo-slang for something else is it?

[baja]

NO!

I knew you were going to say that ;D

[alkemical]

:)