OPINION:
The same people who ridiculed the idea of Donald Trump as President of the United States because he was so unqualified are no quite sure they’ve found the perfect person to run against him in 2020: Oprah Winfrey.
First, NBC sent the message with a tweet that sorta kinda maybe coulda been written off as a joke:
Nothing but respect for OUR future president. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/h4hkjewu0K
— NBC (@nbc) January 8, 2018
Then, after her speech, the New York Times took Oprah’s speech as a foray into presidential politics:
Winfrey’s speech, as an NBC tweet put it, drew a “standing O” from everyone in the room at the 75th Golden Globe Awards show, and it also sparked conjecture that she may run for president sometime soon.
…
“I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon,” Winfrey declared. “And when that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again,” she concluded, bringing audience members to their feet for the second time during her speech.
Many on social media speculated that Winfrey’s impassioned remarks were a sign of a impending run for the White House, a possibility Winfrey actually breathed life into during an interview in March, 2017. The hashtag #Oprah2020 trended on Twitter and NBC, the network that broadcasts the Golden Globes, posted a tweet saying, “Nothing but respect for OUR future president,” at the outset of the show.
Hey, Elizabeth Warren, how did you like the Golden Globes last night?
Or Tim Kaine? Sherrod Brown? Cory Booker? Kamala Harris? Kirsten Gillibrand? Bernie? Joe?
Don’t bother, my friends. Hollywood sent their signal and they understand a big part of the 2016 message. They understand that the politicians in DC, the denizens of The Swamp, are part of the problem.
Just one year after the tragic loss of a woman who had been a DC creature for over 30 years (and they thought that was a good thing) they’ve done a full 180.
They want their own version of Donald Trump, but without all that immigration stuff. They want a billionaire. They want a business leader. They want someone who can transcend the media.
They want Oprah.
And if she says “no” (which she most probably will) they’ll turn to Mark Cuban or Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg or Howard Schultz. Just please, anyone who isn’t a DC politician.
In other words, they’re stealing our gig.
Hating DC was always the conservative thing. We always nominated governors to run against their beloved senators. We always ran against the bloated bureaucracy and cried out the need for an “outsider” to clean house. Yes, we lost our way with our Dole and McCain nominations, but that was when we were still in the mode of nominating the guy whose “turn” it was. But, for the most part, we like outsiders.
And so do the the American people. For the past several decades voters always choose the candidate who is seen as coming from the outside to “fix” DC.
Trump vs. Clinton, Obama vs. McCain, Bush vs. Gore, Clinton vs. Bush, Reagan vs. Carter, Carter vs. Ford. Even Nixon was an outsider having been banished to California for eight years after his loss in 1960.
The one exception was Bush vs. Dukakis in 1988 but that was a vote for Reagan’s 3rd term. If Bush hadn’t messed that up by being the swamp creature he was, we’d be looking at a very different history.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are the ones who tend to love DC and the creatures of the swamp. They look to Georgetown and Chevy Chase restaurants for their next nominees. They love John Kerry and Al Gore and Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden.
By signaling that Oprah or Zuckerberg or Cuban are viable candidates, the elites in Hollywood not only negate a huge chunk of their argument against Trump circa 2016, but they also acknowledge that we were right and they were wrong.
Don’t they ever come up with anything on their own?
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