Oprah Vs. Bill

A new NYT poll chock full o' tasty political tidbits gives us this thought-provoker:

The poll confirmed that former President Bill Clinton was an effective campaign weapon for his wife. Forty-four percent of Democratic voters say Mr. Clinton’s involvement will make them more likely to support her. In fact, about as many of Mrs. Clinton’s backers say they are supporting her because of her husband as say they are supporting her because of her own experience.

The poll found that just 1 percent said they might be swayed by the involvement of Oprah Winfrey, who has been campaigning for Mr. Obama in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire the last three days, drawing huge crowds and allowing his campaign to identify new supporters.

Whodathunkit, especially anyone who bought into this weekend's gushing media coverage of the O & O rally in South Carolina?

Especially confusing is the finding that nearly a quarter of the Dem respondents said they are supporting Hil because of Bill's experience, not hers. Here I thought the Dems were the women's lib party; is it really the party of wives in aprons, doing what hubby tells them to do?

And how do you explain the one percent finding regarding Oprah? I've written about the Dems' ignorance of the negative power of Hollywood, but that doesn't explain 99 percent turning away from her.

The only explanation that makes sense to me is latent Dem racism. White racism fueled Dem election results for decades, and the only way you can get Oprah to a one percent influence level is by having a significant number of Dems who won't vote for Obama because he's black not being influenced by Oprah because she's black.

The NYT article leads with GOP voters being unsettled about their candidates. I'd say that's the secondary story; the real news here is that Dems may like their candidates more, but they have no idea what the party stands for any more.