I never thought I’d be blogging about Oprah.
It was reported yesterday that Oprah will be the first interview that Governor Sarah Palin does for her new book Going Rogue: An American Life, and that program will air on November 16th. Watching the O’Reilly Factor tonight, Bill O’Reilly was talking with Dennis Miller. Miller doesn’t seem to to think that this signifies “going rogue,” but rather “playing the game.”
I disagree. I think the opportunity to appear on Oprah’s show will give her a venue to be able to share her positions and message with a major demographic – suburban women. If she runs for President in 2012 she’ll need to reach out to this group. If she doesn’t run and would rather champion conservative causes and candidate – this is still a group she needs to reach out to.
Appearing on Oprah’s show also helps sell books, and it also sends a message that being snubbed by Oprah during the campaign is water under the bridge. It could also make for an interesting interview as AllahPundit at Hot Air notes:
Obvious topics for discussion: Death panels, women in politics, and quitting as governor. Less obvious but no less intriguing: Oprah’s decision not to have her on during the campaign and whether it was fair to accuse The One on the trail of palling around with terrorists. If she gets that question and turns it around on Oprah by wondering why she had the integrity to quit Rev. Wright’s crazy church when our fearless leader didn’t, I might endorse her on the spot.
I don’t see the interview getting incredibly wonky… I just don’t see that with Oprah. I think it will be an intriguing interview regardless the direction it takes. It will mark the first time I watch Oprah in years. That in itself is a remarkable feat.
Update: C. Brooks Kurtz at Conservatives 4 Palin points out, and I agree, that Dennis Miller’s comments reduced her book to one of two things:
1. Play it “close to the vest” and run for President;
2. Tell all, and become another “Jackie [sic] Susann.”In other words, tell the truth and become a media sideshow, or distort the truth and welcome to the Rubber Chicken Derby. And George Lucas would have us think only Siths deal in absolutes!…
…In other words, Miller – who’s not read Gov. Palin’s book and is not privy to her next move – just reduced the potential of Gov. Palin’s unpublished, best-selling work to either a cynical move meant to thrust her political career forward, or a cynical attempt to enrich herself and her family; or, more salaciously, he just compared it to the work of a woman best-known for hyper-stylizing Hollywood hedonism and shamelessness. Ergo, it’s outside the realm of possibility that Gov. Palin might actually have something substantive to say beyond the politically-unrelated details the media happily dug up the moment she mentioned those Styrofoam columns. Yeah, it’s not like the public’s not acquainted with her writing by now. (read the whole thing)
Perhaps that is how most politicians approach things like promoting books, etc. I think most of us could agree that Sarah Palin isn’t like most politicians.
2nd Update: Adrienne Ross points out that it is Oprah Winfrey who will likely be helped the most from this interview. I can substantiate that as I’ll be watching and I NEVER watch Oprah, I can’t imagine I’ll be the only one in that boat.
