The People's Voice, "Talk Of The Town"  

December 10, 2007
BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Oprah Winfrey was more than a celebrity booster on the campaign stop here.

She was a formidable organizing tool who brought an estimated 29,000 to Williams-Brice Stadium, many of whom were put to work in Barack Obama's last push to close in on Hillary Rodham Clinton before South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary.

While the event was free and open to the public, every person who showed up was asked to fill out a card that recorded whether that person was a volunteer, a student or undecided.

Attendees were also given the option to pledge to vote for Obama in the state primary, while volunteers stationed outside the stadium helped people identify the glitches that could bar them from voting.

"Usually a lot of people come to these events and have a good time, leave and not vote in the Democratic primary," said Richard A. Harpootlian, chairman of the state's Democratic Party from 1998 to 2004.

"I have not seen this kind of energy and excitement in my life, and I've been doing this for 40 years," Harpootlian said.

Introduced by Michelle Obama, Winfrey was greeted with thunderous applause and screams. Although slightly hoarse, she appeared to be more comfortable "stepping out of her pew," as she calls it, apparently having worked out the jitters Saturday in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"I think it is just amazing grace that I get to stand here on this South Carolina stage to talk about the man who will be the next president of the United States," Winfrey told the cheering crowd.

The latest McClatchy-MSNBC Poll shows Obama within 2 to 3 percentage points of Clinton in the early voting states. In South Carolina, Obama trails Clinton by only 3 percentage points.

Oprah's appearances in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire should easily push Obama into the lead, given that tens of thousands of people showed up for the rallies.

At the rally in Columbia, the Obama campaign distributed cards with the phone numbers of four registered voters, along with a script, and asked attendees to use their cell phones to solicit support for Obama. The stunt landed the South Carolina campaign in the Guinness World Records -- in mass participation for the largest phone-banking -- and turned spectators into volunteers.

Ben Bright, who drove from North Carolina, didn't have a problem with impromptu cold-calling.

"I made two contacts, and they both were supporters. The other two people weren't home," he said.

Before turning over the microphone to Barack Obama, Oprah told the crowd she had had "a little apathy going on," but now realizes that apathy is having the attitude that "disappointment is normal."

"Disappointment doesn't have to be normal anymore," she said.