Dear Media: Stop Trying To Make Oprah 2020 Happen

In the words of Joan Rivers, “Can we talk?” Stop it already. Stop.

Stop talking about the 2020 presidential election when we haven’t even gone through the 2018 mid-term elections. Donald Trump’s term is only a year old, and the media is already looking for the dream candidate. And thanks to one speech at an awards show, the media thinks it has what it wants in Oprah Winfrey.

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Kirsten who? Elizabeth who? Joe Biden?

How awful must Senator Kirsten Gillibrand feel right now? She became the first senator to call on Al Franken to resign. She said Bill Clinton should have left when facing his accusations and she declared Donald Trump should resign his office. Gillibrand was the flavor of the month in December and her time (for now) is over.

Oprah Winfrey gave a speech at the Golden Globe Awards. It was a good speech overall, but it didn’t fit within the context of the event. She didn’t name Harvey Weinstein. She didn’t call out Kevin Spacey. Or Brett Ratner. Or Jeffrey Tambor. Or Russell Simmons. Or Dustin Hoffman.

On the media side, she didn’t mention Matt Lauer by name. She didn’t say a word about Mark Halperin. Or Charlie Rose.

The list of people who Oprah could have called out by name goes on. But she didn’t. She spoke in “me too” blather and made her statements so generic it made all of the pomp over wearing black dresses to “raise awareness” a complete waste of time.

And yet media figures such as Brian Stelter couldn’t keep from fanning themselves over the prospect of an Oprah/Trump race in 2020.

Why?

Are people like Stelter so attached the idea of a celebrity president that he’d be out pushing the buttons hoping for Oprah to run?

I can understand Democratic voters liking the idea. They know the lineup they have right now may not even be able to take down Trump and his 40 percent approval rating. Oprah would be the female version of Obama. No track record to speak of within government but damn it she gave one hell of a rousing speech. Yes, unlike silver-foot-in-his-mouth Trump who got a head start having a wealthy Daddy, Oprah made it from nothing. For real.

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But many people went from nothing to something. Oprah is not the first person, and she indeed won’t be the last. There comes a time, however, when people have to stop looking at the celebrity status and ask, “What could she possibly know about running the country?”

Be careful. If your response is, “Yeah, but what did Trump know?” then you’re falling into a trap. You’d be allowing yourself to take up the cause for a person you know is not qualified or mistakenly think — as people did with Trump — that her success in entertainment and show business would give her the gravitas to be President.

No.

No. 

We’ve had enough of the celebrity culture in the White House. It’s time to go with somebody boring who knows what the hell they’re doing.

So thanks, but no thanks, Oprah. And to people like Brian Stelter: Stop trying to make it happen.

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