Own it, Oprah

posted at 1:13 pm on September 16, 2009 by Jorge Bonilla
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As I scoured the internets in search of the latest A(corn)-bomb, I stumbled across this gem at HuffPo.  It appears that Oprah Winfrey, she of the dwindling ratings, would now like to walk back from the disaster she foisted upon America, also known as the Barack Obama presidency.  Not gonna happen.

Sorry, Oprah, you’re owning this one.  You long fancied yourself America’s tastemaker.  Any author fortunate enough to land on your Book Club list knows to expect a serious windfall, and sales typically skyrocket for products featured on the holiday “Favorite Things” episode.  This, in addition to the beef fiasco is evidence of your huge sway on the markets.  Thus, when you trotted out this fresh-faced Senator from your home market, it was implied that he also bore the “Oprah Seal Of Approval”.

Not content with introducing him to Middle America and allowing himself to pass himself off as a centrist Messiah, you went out of your way to endorse him, gave stump speeches, and then, you fundraised for him.  I remember you anointing him “The One”.

“My job was to make people, or allow people, to be introduced to Obama, who might not have been, at the time,” she said. “I wanted him elected, and I think I did that”.

We know you wanted him elected.  On Election Night we all saw you, teary-eyed, leaning over some dude’s shoulder at Grant Park.  The next day, we endured your preening touchdown celebration of a post-election show (the “Hope Won” t-shirt was particularly obnoxious, a creepy harbringer of later Obamite “I won” hubris”).

Now, after the cheering has subsided, and the Greek columns have been stored, you can’t just unwind all your advocacy and keep silent on “…this political situation”.  Which you aided and abetted.  Well, you can…it’s just not particularly classy.  You are part and parcel of this disastrous presidency, and no amount of backspin can make that inconvenient truth go away.  You own this, whether or not you want to admit it.  I am secure in the knowledge that you will forego the public option that you helped impose on your fellow citizens.  I am appalled at you cavalier disregard of so many of your viewers, who mindlessly voted for the current President on your word alone, forgiving your betrayal of a fellow woman in the process.

You enabled and midwifed “this political situation”.  Thus, you own every last misstep; from Porkulus to our betrayal of Honduras, from the blood of Neda to the current healthcare debate (incidentally, I don’t see you jumping and screaming, “EVERYONE GETS RATIONED!”…but you should).

Let this be a lesson to you.  Think twice before foisting something on America again…although I doubt you’ll get a chance as big.  In this regard, you now have about as much credibility as James Frey.  Own it.

UPDATE (JB): Link fixed.

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