Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [225]
She once boasted to a British writer, “I think I could have a great influence in politics, and I think I could get elected.” But, she added, “I think a politician would want to be me [instead]. If you really want to change people’s lives, have an hour platform every day to go into their homes.” To The Times of London she said, “Having this big voice on television is what every politician wants. They all try and get on the show and I don’t do politics on the show.”
Careful at the time not to get partisan, Oprah invited First Lady Barbara Bush to be her guest in 1989, and she later extended several invitations to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appeared four times during her husband’s eight years in the White House. Hillary celebrated her fiftieth birthday on Oprah’s show, and Oprah asked Hillary to present her with her Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Emmys. During that ceremony, Oprah, clutching Hillary’s hand, said, “I hope you do us the privilege of running for … president of the United States.”
Oprah had considered breaking her “no politicians” rule back in 1992 by inviting Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, Sr., to be her guest, because, as she said at the time, “He’s become larger than politics,” but she backed off. Still skittish four years later, she turned down a request from Senator Robert Dole, the 1996 GOP presidential candidate, who was running against Bill Clinton.
“I was very torn [about Dole’s request to come on the show],” she told her viewers. “I went to my producers and said, ‘Maybe this isn’t the right decision.’ But in the end I decided to stay out of politics, maintaining my long-standing policy: I don’t do politicians.” At the time, her studio audience gave her a resounding ovation. “I’ve tried to stay out of politics for my entire tenure on the air,” she said that day. “Basically, it’s a no-win situation. Over the years, I have not found that interviewing politicians about the issues worked for my viewing audience. I try to bring issues that people understand through their hearts and their feelings so they can make decisions.”
Senator Dole laughed at Oprah’s explanation. “Riiight,” he jibed years later. “She doesn’t do politicians—if they run against Democrats.”
Oprah admitted she had been “asked to do everything” at the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but she insisted she would not participate in any way, except for attending the parties thrown by “my friends Ethel Kennedy and John Kennedy, Jr.” Since meeting Maria Shriver in Baltimore, where they both worked for WJZ-TV, Oprah had been besotted by the Kennedys. She boosted them at every turn, contributing to Ethel Kennedy’s online charity, promoting the books of Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver, attending fund-raisers for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, hosting a show titled “The Kennedy Cousins,” and inviting any and all Kennedys to appear with her throughout the years. In 2009, Victoria Kennedy gave Oprah her first interview after the death of her husband, Senator Edward Kennedy.
Although Oprah had not publicly declared herself a Democrat, her close friends—Maya Angelou, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Quincy Jones, Coretta Scott King, Toni Morrison, Andrew Young—were all Democrats committed to Clinton, and Oprah herself had been invited to the Clintons’ first white-tie state dinner in 1994, for Japan’s emperor, Akihito, and empress, Michiko. (She admitted later she had been tongue-tied in the presence of Japanese royalty. “I didn’t know what to say, and it was one of the few times.”) Oprah had attended her first White House state dinner in 1989, during the George Herbert Walker Bush administration,