I think Ana Marie Cox basically gets the import of Oprah's events with Obama right. It's not just that these are really large events, but really large events composed of new voters who the other candidates don't really have access to. This is particularly important in Iowa, where caucus participation is, if memory doesn't fail, six percent of the population. A couple thousand new recruits could win the state for Obama. And thanks to the way the media instantly amplifies Iowa's results, those thousands new recruits who win the caucus for Obama might actually hand him the nomination. And in doing, they might give him the presidency. And the crucial ingredient might have been a joint event with Oprah that yielded 18,500 new names and addresses in Des Moines, Iowa. This is either evidence that Oprah is very, very powerful, or that our primary system is very, very screwed up. Or possibly both.
