Ed Klein’s blockbuster new best-seller about President Barack Obama chronicles Obama’s shocking betrayal of Oprah Winfrey, disclosing how Oprah helped him win the presidency and then was “frozen out” of the White House after the election.
Klein’s just-released book skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot on The New York Times best-seller list in its first week in publication and has remained there. In “Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House,” Klein offers surprising, behind-the-scene details about the relationship between Obama, first lady Michelle, and the TV talk superstar.
When then-Sen. Obama released his book “The Audacity of Hope” — it was Oprah Winfrey who endorsed the book, airing a full hour of her show with the rising star. The book became an instant best-seller — and Obama not only became a millionaire overnight, he also was on his way to national stardom and political success.
And during the heated Democratic primary in 2008 pitting Obama against Hillary Clinton, Oprah took on great risk by endorsing Obama over Hillary.
As Klein notes in "Amateur" – Oprah’s endorsement "represented a calculated risk for the queen of daytime television.”
He added, “It was one thing for her to recommend a book but it was quite another to back a political candidate. She worried that her audience would resent her becoming a partisan for a political candidate.”
In fact, Oprah’s endorsement played a big role in winning over parts of Middle America for Obama, according to The New York Times. Two university economists estimated that her support was worth more than 1 million votes and decided the primary election.
As it turned out, a sizeable portion of Oprah’s audience took offense at her backing of Obama and stopped watching her show. After she hit the campaign trail during the primary campaign, Oprah’s favorability ratings slid from 74 to 66 percent, while her unfavorable ratings jumped from 17 to 26 percent.
Despite using her goodwill and capital, Klein details Obama’s shocking betrayal of Oprah.
Quoting sources close to Oprah, Klein offers a blow-by-blow account of how Obama’s wife and top staff turned on the TV star.
After Obama won the White House, Oprah was “largely frozen out of the White House” by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Obama’s wife Michelle, because they viewed Oprah as a potential threat to their power.
Jarrett advised Michelle to “distance herself” from Oprah and cut her out of the White House inner circle, suggesting Oprah “didn’t know her place” or “was a bad influence.” Oprah was trying to become the de facto first lady!
As far as Michelle was concerned, Oprah’s billions and her elite lifestyle disqualified her as an adviser to Obama, who had no use for wealthy people except as a source of campaign contributions.
Plus, Michelle is very jealous, a source told Klein, and “doesn’t seem to trust Barack at all. She insists on knowing his every movement and drops in on him at all kinds of odd times.”
When Oprah and Gayle King — her magazine’s editor-at-large and longtime companion — arrived at the White House for an interview with Michelle, they “were made to wait at the security gate like ordinary visitors,” Klein recounts.
Oprah stunned Michelle by asking whether she and the president were still fighting a lot. Michelle collected herself and said the arguing had been a “growth point” in their relationship.
When Michelle announced she was going to devote herself to fighting childhood obesity, Oprah offered to help and suggested Michelle appear on Oprah’s TV show to discuss her campaign. Oprah was told “that wouldn’t fit into the first lady’s plans.”
After the rebuff, sources told Klein that Oprah raged: “Michelle hates fat people and doesn’t want me waddling around the White House.”
Michelle was quoted as telling her staff: “Oprah with her yo-yo dieting and huge girth is a terrible role model. Kids will look at Oprah, who’s rich and famous and huge, and figure it’s okay to be fat.”
Michelle believes Oprah has been getting too close to Hillary Clinton, whom Michelle calls “a snake.”
"Amateur," based on more than 200 interviews of some of Obama’s closest friends and advisors, offers the most revealing account of the man and his presidency.
Klein, himself a former New York Times editor, has become the target of media attacks.
Oprah Winfrey’s virtual vanishing from America’s airwaves is the direct result of her political support for Barack Obama, according to the nation’s top-rated radio host.
“Oprah threw away her TV career for Obama,” Rush Limbaugh said this afternoon. “If you want to know why Oprah’s not on television anymore, it’s because she supported Obama. If you want to know why Oprah is flailing away on a cable network that nobody watches, it’s because of Obama.”
Oprah is best-known for her self-titled TV talk show, which became the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally broadcast from 1986 to 2011.
But her latest venture, the cable channel OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, is flirting with disaster, struggling to attract viewers since its debut in January 2011.
Find out everything you wanted to know about the REAL Oprah Winfrey in “O God” personally autographed by authors Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett.
Last month, Bloomberg reported OWN may have lost a staggering $330 million since its inception.
“The company needs to provide investors with a roadmap for this business,” said Paul Sweeney, senior analyst with Bloomberg Industries. “Specifically, how long will they stomach these losses before they make a serious change in strategy?”
Limbaugh says Winfrey’s fall is not difficult to trace.
“Oprah decided that she would let her racial association take precedence over her television and broadcasting knowledge,” he said.
“When she decided that … she had Obama on [her show] and made him a millionaire. She put him on TV to sell his first book. It made him an overnight millionaire. It helped establish him as a rising figure in the Democrat Party. It helped get his biography out there. OK, that’s all well and good. There ought to be some gratitude from Obama for that.
“Then Oprah basically throws away her career by endorsing Obama. That’s when her likability number (the Q number, favorable number) started plummeting, along with her ratings. Because it was at that point that Oprah’s audience began to ask themselves – maybe suspect – ‘You know, maybe race matters to her more than all this other stuff that she talks about.’”
Limbaugh says prior to Oprah’s public support for Obama, race was not a big deal with her.
“She was about self-improvement and all that yin-yang that her program was about,” he said.
“But people started now questioning all of that and how sincere it was. So she’s out on the campaign trail, and she sacrificed herself. This is not a sympathy play for Oprah. I’m just telling you what happened. Because in the process of doing all of this for Obama, where’s Oprah now? They don’t even let her in the White House because Michelle hates her, according to [Ed Klein's book, 'The Amateur'].”
“And Oprah is quoted in this book as saying that Michelle doesn’t like fat people ‘waddling around the White House,’ and Michelle felt threatened by Oprah because Obama liked Oprah. The bottom line is, Obama and Michelle ought to have eternal gratitude for Oprah Winfrey, and they don’t. And Oprah gave up a lot for ‘em. And by the same token, Obama ought to have a little gratitude for people that came before – and he doesn’t. He’s a lone wolf; he’s a lone player.”
IP: Logged
10:05 PM
Jun 7th, 2012
Toddster Member
Posts: 20871 From: Roswell, Georgia Registered: May 2001
Sometimes people do get what they deserve. Seams like something new comes out almost every day.
Its too bad that "we the people" are still going to pay the real price no matter what happens. Even if he isn't re-elected he got to be the most powerful person in the country ( world? ) and turned this country in a direction that will take generations to fix, at best. ( and decades to repair the damage done between us and our allies around the world )
He will also be part of a exclusive club for life, and have a lot of clout and endless requests for paid speeches.
