Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama has struck gold in the form of a candidate endorsement from the all-powerful Oprah Winfrey. In addition to throwing him her support, she threw Obama a fundraiser that netted millions of dollars for his campaign. She says Obama is the only candidate who will get air time on her show… giving him a valuable audience with women, who constitute the majority of Oprah’s viewers. In the run up to this big endorsement, Youth Radio’s Alana Germany got a chance to see how Bay Area women are responding to Oprah’s favorite candidate.
There were about 3,000 Obama supporters that came out to San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, screaming and cheering for their candidate. One front runner of the Women for Obama movement got the audience riled up with the clichéd, yet surprisingly effective call and response chant of “When I say “O!” you say “Bama!” The audience met every single “O!” with a thunderous, “Bama,” each one seemingly louder than the one before it.
After a good half hour of introductions and speeches from Barack supporters, the senator himself finally made his way onto the stage. And after shaking a few hands, and giving out hugs to the “Women for Obama” who were on the stage, he began his speech. And boy does this senator know how to tell the people what they want to hear.
He catered to the women (the main focus of the event) by emphasizing his role as a family man, and made constant reference to the three important women in his life: his wife, and two daughters. The emphasis placed on his role as a family man visibly touched the mothers in the audience, many of whom had their babies and toddlers with them.
He didn’t just focus on the women. He did a roll call that reached out to everyone in the audience: to old voters, young voters, to long time Democrats, and even those in the audience who were former Republicans. And this was the major appeal; he made things personal. He singled out groups of people, and there was a certain point where almost all of us in the crowd were able to say, “Hey, he’s talking to me.” For me it was when he talked about young voters; I just turned 18 this summer and the 2008 election will be my first vote.
Upon his election, Obama guarantees withdrawal from Iraq, more money for health care, and says he hopes to provide top notch education for all American students by abolishing the unreasonable “No Child Left Behind” act. He says that the damage to Washington caused by the Bush Administration must be fixed, and seems to think he’s the only man for the job. His proposals and criticisms of the current administration were met with deafening applause.
By the end of Obama’s half hour oration, the audience members were in such an uproar you’d think they were a group of frenzied teenagers, screaming for their favorite band. In a matter of five minutes, people were rushing to the stage trying to shake hands with the senator, and reporters and photographers stood on chairs and platforms trying to snap photos of the frenzy.
With the help from “Women for Obama,” and the backing of the omnipresent Oprah, it’s clear the Barack Obama campaign is making huge strides in the recruitment of female voters. But what’s not as easily predictable is whether he can stop the female population from giving their vote to Democratic front runner, Hilary Clinton, the one presidential candidate who can relate to women in a way that Obama never will.
