Oprah and Obama a hit in S.C.
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By Mike Dorning and Jill Zuckman
Tribune national correspondents
8:29 PM CST, December 9, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Oprah Winfrey came to South Carolina Sunday with a message tailored to the state's considerable African-American community, asking them to cast aside doubt and support the black man she assured them could—and should— be elected president.
On the second day of Barack Obama and Winfrey's tour of early voting states, the two turned out the biggest crowd yet of the election campaign, an exuberant and overwhelmingly African-American audience that filled about a third of a football stadium and organizers said exceeded 29,000.
The scale of the event rivaled the largest campaign rallies in recent history. Obama drew energy from the crowd, stretching out his arm and holding the microphone to the audience to capture its roar. At times, the metal bleachers behind him rumbled under stomping feet.
While mostly avoiding explicit racial references, Winfrey clearly placed Obama's campaign in the long struggle of African-Americans for equality, drawing from Martin Luther King's most famous civil rights speech. "Dr. King dreamed a dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore," Winfrey said. "We get to vote that dream into reality."
The contest for the political loyalties of African-Americans will be crucial in the South Carolina primary, a key early voting state where blacks made up about half of the electorate in the last Democratic presidential primary. The state's African-American political establishment has not rushed to embrace Obama, with many black leaders either backing rival Hillary Clinton or keeping their options open as they express doubts about the possibility of electing a black to the nation's highest office.
Days before Obama's first visit as a presidential candidate in February, state Sen. Robert Ford, a longtime black political figure with a long civil rights record, warned that an African-American at the top might drag down the rest of the Democratic ticket.
While polls early in the year showed Obama trailing both Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards in South Carolina, a McClatchy-MSNBC poll released Sunday put him at a statistical tie for the lead with the New York senator. Clinton had 28 percent and Obama 25 percent support among likely Democratic primary voters. A key factor has been a swing to Obama among the state's African-Americans, whom the poll showed support the Illinois senator 37 to 21 percent over Clinton.
On Sunday, Winfrey and Obama delivered messages rich with references to faith, historical moment and the possibilities ahead, in effect urging the crowd to set aside doubts. "Disappointment doesn't have to be normal anymore," said Winfrey.
Winfrey described her own rise from birth in the segregated South of 1954 in the neighboring state of Mississippi. "Think about where you'd be in your life if you'd waited when people told you to," Winfrey said. "I wouldn't be where I am if I'd waited on the people who told me it can't be."
On a Sunday afternoon in which many people from this Bible Belt state came to the rally after attending church services, Winfrey opened by speaking of the "amazing grace" that brought her to the stage and would permit Obama "to be the next president of the United States."
For the day at least, many in the crowd felt that same confidence, bringing along children and grandchildren to share the moment and cameras to record Obama's visit for posterity. "It's history in the making," said Laverne Worthy, 35, a training coordinator for an investment bank in Charlotte, N.C. "He is half-white and half-black, and he is going to be our first African-American president," said Worthy, who brought along her 10-year-old son, Justin.
The crowd began lining up for seats before 6 a.m. for a 2:30 pm rally, though many said Winfrey was at least as important a draw. Several supporters said Winfrey's endorsement had helped them sort through conflicting opinions about which candidate to back, and others said she had solidified their own feelings that Obama was the right choice.
"She has not let anyone down yet. The doubt is gone," said Queenie Glover, 62, a nurse from Aiken, S.C., who said she had been inclined toward Clinton until four days ago when she heard of Winfrey's unhedged endorsement. Though Glover said she rarely watches Oprah because the show airs while she is at work, she added, "Her reputation, her track record precedes her. I don't think she's going to step out on a doubt."
"Oprah just turned me all the way around," Glover continued. "You can have all the political strategists, the news media. But Oprah's not going to sugar-coat anything. She's going to give you the straight facts."
Billie Freitus, 30, an Army wife and full-time mother of four from East Columbia, said she had long supported Obama because of his opposition to the war in Iraq. But she said that she made a special effort to attend the rally because of Winfrey.
"When they said Oprah was going to be here, I said I'm coming," said Freitus, one of the white supporters at Sunday's rally. "I think she's a great person and a role model for the women of the United States. I trust her 100 percent." "She's changed the world in so many different ways—the school in Africa, helping low-income families, battered women," added Freitus, who said she watches the show every day and has purchased several of the books Winfrey has recommended.
Later Sunday, on a cold, dark night with snow in the forecast, Obama and Winfrey attracted considerably fewer people in Manchester, N.H. But it was still a overwhelming crowd for a presidential campaign event in the state, with at least 6,000 people inside the Verizon Wireless Arena. The arena holds more than 11,000, and while most of the lower tier seats were filled, the upper decks were sparse. The campaign had distributed about 10,000 tickets in advance.
For many of the voters in the predominantly female crowd, it was curiosity that drew them here, rather than an ardent passion for the Illinois senator or even the queen of afternoon television. Barbara Levesque and Alexis Jackson drove for more than an hour to hear Obama after listening to Clinton on Thursday. "I guess I'm coming here to see if there is any substance compared to Hillary," said Levesque, an independent voter who works as a forester.
Jackson, a Democrat, said she wanted to see "the circus atmosphere of having Oprah" here. Both are undecided and both gave a favorable review to Clinton's town hall meeting at Gunstock Mountain last week. "It was very enlightening to hear her speak without sound bites," said Jackson. "She came across as more insightful and approachable."
Geno Dempsey and his son, Jordan, 15, have not seen any other candidate speak this year, but the idea of catching Obama piqued their curiosity. "We wanted the opportunity to experience this," said Dempsey, an independent voter who has yet to make up his mind which candidate he will back.
To these voters, Winfrey and Obama seemed to repeatedly draw critical contrasts with both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. "The amount of time a person spends in Washington means nothing unless that person is accountable for the judgments they made with the time they had," Winfrey said, adding that she is looking for a president with moral authority. "It's time for a president who has good judgment. We need Barrack Obama."
-Mike Dorning reported from South Carolina and Jill Zuckman reported from New Hampshire.
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