The Barack Obama campaign has been rising in polls as fast as highway 40 going north. Then the campaign hit the afterburners and rolled out its biggest gun in Iowa this past weekend, Oprah Winfrey. There is no bigger individual (living) brand in America than Oprah. There are a few big name brands out there, Martha Stewart, Muhammad Ali, Paul McCartney, Michael Jordan, Elizabeth Taylor, but few with Oprah Winfrey’s golden touch. Clearly, Barack’s opponents are nervous about the “Oprah effect.” It’s the move all other candidates, including Hilary Clinton, had feared.

Clinton tried to match it with an announcement of Barbara Streisand - her husband’s biggest supporter when he ran for President. But it didn’t match the buzz of Oprah coming to canvass with Obama in Iowa. In the week leading up to the Oprah touchdown in Iowa, political pundits tried to assess “the Oprah effect.” Some events tried to dismiss it, as not much of a matter. Please. That’s how much in denial they are about the staying power of the Obama campaign. Celebrity endorsements have always mattered. Anything and anyone that brings attention and energy to a campaign, matters. Oprah is the ultimate celebrity and the ultimate “waymaker.” Her celebrity will matter this time, too.

Oprah represents the ultimate “celebrity boost” in an already frenzied campaign. Obama was already drawing “rock star” crowds before Oprah. The campaign already had problems finding places to hold rallies. But once Oprah announced that she would start making appearances with Barack in three early primary states (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina), the problem became magnified squared. In South Carolina, they had to switch from a 13,000-seat venue to an 80,000-seat venue. And it was filled to capacity. The same relative explosion occurred in Iowa. Thus, is the drawing power of Oprah Winfrey. It was the ultimate “bump” for the Obama campaign. No matter how the media talking heads try to marginalize the effect, there is no marginalizing Oprah.

Oprah’s reach is tangible and verifiable. You have to look no further than ratings, book sales, and product endorsements to see her tangibility. It’s her intangibility, in the form of her opinion in the two segments of society in which this election will turn - African Americans and white women and that is where the impact of the Oprah effect becomes very real. Both segments embrace and pay close attention to Oprah’s opinion. Oprah has been one of this nation’s leading opinion leaders for more than two decades. But she has never really gotten political, beyond issues, with her opinion. And to suggest that Oprah Winfrey’s opinion doesn’t matter is, well, just foolish.

Every husband or boyfriend in America has heard, at least once, their wife or girlfriend say, “Well, Oprah Winfrey says we’re supposed to…” to which the response has been, “Then you ought to go and live with Oprah Winfrey.” While I digressed momentarily, my point is that women (and many men) listen to Oprah and share her views. At times, her viewpoints have been so strong that they started calling her, “Saint Oprah,” and not condescendingly either. She’s just proven herself over the years to be the real deal in addressing societal issues, helping people deal with their personal challenges and uplifting people’s spirits.

Oprah affects people on a different level. She projects them beyond the stratosphere, into an ozone beyond comprehension. Now she’s taking Obama’s campaign into the “Oprah-sphere” and she has Obama’s opponents’ attention. All you had to do was watch the nationally televised rollout in Iowa on CNN and FOX’s coverage to know people are paying attention.

Celebrities have always been able to transcend politics in a way that engages people who normally would not pay attention to campaigns and elections. Politics, in all its dirty glory, tends to disengage the overwhelming majority of the American public. Celebrities help get people’s attention and open their minds to hearing a political message they might otherwise shut down. Celebrities sell candidates in the same way they sell products. What Oprah wants, what Oprah does, her fan base might want or do. John F. Kennedy sent his brother-in-law, Peter Lawford to get Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack,” to invigorate his campaign (despite Sinatra’s alleged mob ties). Richard Nixon, despite engaging a racially charged Southern strategy to bring in alienated “Dixiecrats” (now the core of the Republican Party), reached out to Sammy Davis, Jr. to try to appeal to black voters. Who can forget the look on Nixon’s face when Sammy hugged him (and the look on our faces because we couldn’t believe he was actually doing it). Nixon won the election. Reagan actually was the celebrity and his B-movie appeal brought in Charlton Heston (who actually changed parties to support Reagan). Two decades after he played Moses, Heston parted the Red Sea for Reagan. Bill Clinton attracted Streisand and a host of Hollywood types that helped him to win a three-man race (against Daddy Bush and Ross Perot) that he wasn’t supposed to win. It was the celebrity “bump” that put him over the top. Even George W. Bush brought in Arnold Schwarzenegger in a mid-term election that he, by all polling accounts, was supposed to lose. Arnold’s “celebrity effect” gave Bush the three percent bump he needed in the election, deciding state of Ohio, which was in the 2004 election what Florida was in 2000. In “W” words, Ohio was the “decider” and Arnold’s celebrity helped decide it. So, don’t underestimate the power of celebrity.

Now, as to the power of Oprah? Well, just know there is no presidential candidate out there who wouldn’t want the person who talks to millions of people everyday (and now every night, in some markets). Oprah reaches those that Fox and CNN don’t. Even the MTV generation knows Oprah. Now America’s leading politicians know that America knows Oprah. They’re getting ready to see the full effect of the “Oprah effect,” in a campaign already charged to the hilt. The other candidates can be in denial if they want to be. But we all know, celebrity matters - and Oprah is as big as they come.

Your comments are always welcome.