ABOVE PHOTO: President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are pictured with Oprah Winfrey during a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show at Harpo
Studios in Chicago, Wednesday, April 27, 2011.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
By Cory Alexander Haywood
eurweb.com
Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama are no longer buddies, according to a report in the NY Post.
Word around the water cooler is that during Obama’s 2008 campaign run, a scratching of backs was supposed to occur, but never happened as intended.
Once elected, Obama reportedly promised Winfrey “special” access to the White House in exchange for her participation and national celebrity influence. The
supposed deal also arranged for Oprah to be provided the inside scoop regarding government affairs that she could use as material for her then fledgling
cable network, OWN.
After the election, several ill-fated attempts to contact the White House were made by high-ranking representatives of Oprah’s inner-circle. Letters were
sent, calls were made, but responses weren’t supplied (so much for reciprocity).
Oprah’s camp says she held up her end of the bargain, assisting in Obama’s landslide victory over geriatric Republican nominee John McCain. However, the
President and first lady haven’t delivered on their promise of exclusive accessibility to their humble abode, prompting Winfrey to believe that she was
played for a fool (not cool Obama).
The slight, which sources close to Winfrey believe was deliberate, has reportedly caused a rift between she and the first family. As the White House was
gearing up to sell ObamaCare to the American people last summer, Valerie Jarrett, the president’s point woman on a host of issues, phoned Oprah.
She invited the Queen of All Media to join other celebrities including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, to meet with President Obama and
discuss how they could generate publicity for his health-care law.
Oprah refused.
“All of Oprah’s top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes,” said one of
Oprah’s closest advisers. “But Oprah said she didn’t have the time or inclination to go. It wasn’t like she had to think it over. It was an immediate,
flat-out, unequivocal no.”
Instead, Oprah sent a low-level rep from one of her talent agencies, which was regarded as a insult. Obama had been counting on Oprah’s immense persuasive
powers to help enroll millions in ObamaCare. But so far, Oprah has yet to lift a finger to help.
The report says Oprah’s friends publicly dismiss the idea that she had a falling out with Obama. They note that she phoned Michelle Obama right after the
2012 election to congratulate her. They say Michelle invited her to have dinner with the first family. But the dinner never took place, and Oprah continues
to be frozen out.
“Oprah was hoping there would be a genuine change in the atmospherics,” one of her friends told Edward Klein of Model Trigger. “But there hasn’t been.
Clearly, she is being rebuffed at the level of Michelle and Valerie. And, just as obviously, President Obama hasn’t interfered on Oprah’s behalf.”
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