Decline and Fall of Common Sense: Oprah, Allow Us Voters to Form Our Own Opinions

Last night’s LA times had an insightful article (written by Tina Daunt, Cause Célèbre) on celebrity endorsements and the growing number of Oprah's fans that are fuming from her Obama endorsement. They didn’t use ‘backlash’ but that is the term that best fits.

One posting on her website, Oprah.com, accused the talk diva of being a traitor. By Thursday, that message string had attracted more than 12,000 views. Another poster told Winfrey to "stop pushing Obama down our throats. There were 3,000 hits logged on that one. Another said: "Do you really know Barack Hussein Obama? Scary & something we have to take into consideration!" There were more than 4,000 views for that.

The article continued with this next posting, "First of all I want to say that I am a HUGE Oprah fan, I love what she stands for. She is a strong woman changing the world. However, I have been extremely disappointed with her recent touring with Barack Obama. It is a manipulation and an abuse of her power and influence on the American culture.

A not-so-subtle attempt at celebrity manipulation.

For balance there was Barbra Streisand making the not-so-stunning announcement that she was supporting Hillary Clinton.

Pat Sajak hit the nail on the head in his last month’s column for Human Events.com. He wrote, “If any group of citizens is uniquely unqualified to tell someone else how to vote, it’s those of us who live in the sheltered, privileged arena of celebrityhood. It’s one thing to buy an ab machine because Chuck Norris recommends it (he’s in good shape, isn’t he?) or a grill because George Foreman’s name is on it (he’s a great guy, so it must be a great grill!), but the idea of choosing the Leader of the Free World based on the advice of someone who lives in the cloistered world of stardom seems a bit loony to me.

The greater danger is that a celebrity's presence can hurt a candidate. But isn’t all this just common sense to the vast majority of us voters?

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