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Politics & Government
Oprah Hosts $3 million Obama Fundraiser
posted on Sep 10, 2007
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Some 1,500 guests paid $2,300 dollars a head to be at the Oprah
Winfrey-hosted fundraiser for presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama
(D-IL) at her 42-acre, $50 million estate in Montecito, California. The
Saturday night event attracted celebrities such as Will Smith, Sidney
Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker,
Tyler Perry, Dennis Haysbert, Nia Long, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evans and
Judge Greg Mathis. Stevie Wonder, Michelle Obama's favorite singer,
played for the crowd. The event raised $3 million for the Obama
campaign.
Guests had to park their cars in an equestrian center
and travel to the estate on shuttle buses. They were subjected to
strict security procedures and stripped of their mobile phones, cameras
and recording devices. Instructions sent to guests noted that Winfrey
and Obama would not be accepting gifts and to wear flat shoes to
protect the Winfrey estate grounds. The media were barred from the
fundraiser whose menu featured mini burgers, chips and guacamole,
chicken tenders, corn-on-the-cob on a stick, iced tea, water, lemonade
and wine. This was Winfrey's first ever presidential fundraiser. "I
haven't been actively engaged before because there hasn't been anything
to be actively engaged in. But I am engaged now to make Barack Obama
the next President of the United States," Winfrey told the attendees.
Winfrey
has given Obama a ringing endorsement, saying he is a man of destiny
whose time has come. Speculation has been mounting about how the talk
show queen and media powerhouse will use her influence to support
Obama's presidential aspiration. "My
money isn't going to make any difference to him," Winfrey told CNN's
Larry King earlier this year. "I think that my value to him, my support
of him, is probably worth more than any check." While Winfrey has proven the power she
has to catapult unknown authors to the top of the best-seller list,
this is new territory for her and time will tell if her influence in
media and publishing can be transferred to presidential politics. The
Washington Post made it plain as to her influence on the general
public: "the television program that reaches 8.4 million viewers each
weekday afternoon, according to the most recent Nielsen numbers. Her
Web site reaches 2.3 unique viewers each month, 'O, the Oprah
Magazine,' has a circulation of 2 million, she circulates a weekly
newsletter to 420,000 fans and 360,000 people have subscribed to her
Web site for daily 'Oprah Alerts' by e-mail."
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