Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [240]
Initially she seemed awkward, saying she felt she had stepped out of her pew, as she again referenced The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and how the enslaved woman was searching for “the one” who would lead her people to freedom. “Well, I do believe in ’08 I have found the answer to Miss Pittman’s question. I have fooo-uu-nd the answer! It is the same question that our nation is asking, ‘Are you the one? Are you the one?’ I’m here to tell y’all, he is the one. He is the one.… Barack Obama!”
By the fall, Hillary and Obama had sprinted ahead of the six other Democratic candidates, with Hillary enjoying the overwhelming support of women, while Obama captured the enthusiasm of the highly educated and the antiwar activists. He won the Iowa caucuses; she won the New Hampshire primary. On Super Tuesday she won 836 delegates; he won 845. Their neck-and-neck race continued until June 7, 2008, when Hillary officially ended her campaign and eloquently endorsed him.
During the early months of the campaign, Oprah had been alone in carrying the high-wattage celebrity torch for Obama, but on January 27, 2008, Caroline Kennedy stepped forward to announce her endorsement. In a New York Times op-ed titled “A President Like My Father,” the daughter of John F. Kennedy wrote, “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president—not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.” With Caroline Kennedy came her cousin Maria Shriver, and their uncle Senator Ted Kennedy, whose endorsement galvanized the campaign and shook the timbers of support for Hillary Clinton, especially among African Americans, who began to see that Barack Obama might actually have a fighting chance.
By the time Oprah appeared at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion flanked by Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Michelle Obama, she felt emboldened enough to address her critics:
“After Iowa, there were some women who had the nerve to say to me, ‘How could you, Oprah, how could you?’ ” she said, imitating a nasal twang. “ ‘You’re a traitor to your gender.’ The truth is, I’m a free woman. I am a free woman.” She repeated this three times. “Being free means you get to think for yourself and you get to decide for yourself what to do. So I say I am not a traitor. I am just following my own truth, and that truth has led me to Barack Obama.” She mocked women who declared, “I’m a woman; I have to vote for a woman.” She fired up the crowd. “As free women, you have the right to change your mind. You’re not a traitor because you believe and see a better way.”
At the end of that rally Michelle Obama told the rapt crowd, “I want you to leave here and envision Barack Obama taking the oath of office.”
So Oprah, who believed in the tenets of The Secret, a book she had pressed on Obama, returned home and created a vision board (see it, believe it, achieve it). She put Obama’s picture in the middle of the board, alongside a picture of the dress she wanted to wear to his inauguration. Then she began visualizing the success she wanted. By the time Obama secured the Democratic nomination in August, she was fully convinced that he was destiny’s child and would be elected president.
“I’m very happy that I made the decision early last year to come out for him.… I decided early on that even if I lost every sponsor on the show—there’s a wonderful Bible passage [Matthew 16:26] that says, ‘What does it do for a man to gain the world and lose his soul?’ If I had not come out for Barack Obama when I did, I know I would have lost a piece of my soul.”
On election night,