As NewsBusters has reported, many Hollywood stars volunteered their services to help the White House sell ObamaCare.
According to a Sunday article at the New York Post, the woman who named Barack Obama "The One," Oprah Winfrey, wasn't among them.
The Post's Edward Klein claimed that last summer, Obama's pointwoman Valerie Jarrett phoned Winfrey to invite her to join other celebrities including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys to meet with the President to discuss how they can help launch his healthcare program.
Winfrey apparently said no.
“All of Oprah’s top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes,” one of Winfrey's closest advisers told Klein. “But Oprah said she didn’t have the time or inclination to go. It wasn’t like she had to think it over. It was an immediate, flat-out, unequivocal no.”
Rather than going herself, Winfrey sent "a low-level rep from one of her talent agencies."
Obama, who had been counting on Winfrey to help him launch his signature legislative achievement, apparently saw this is an insult.
So what's behind the snub?
According to Klein, Winfrey expected more access to the president after she campaigned so hard for him in 2008.
“Oprah intended to make her unique White House access a part of her new [cable] network [OWN],” a source close to Winfrey told Klein. “There were big plans, and a team was put together to come up with proposals that would have been mutually beneficial."
Despite sending notes as well as a representative to meet with Jarrett, nothing materialized. As a result, Winfrey didn't even campaign for Obama in 2012.
Klein's sources told him that the problem might be Michelle Obama.
“For her part, Oprah doesn’t like being with Michelle, because the first lady is constantly one-upping the president and anybody else around her,” a Winfrey adviser told Klein.
“Oprah has struck back by banning the Obamas from her O, The Oprah Magazine . . . It probably hurts Oprah more than Obama, who, if he had his head screwed on straight, would have flown to California and begged Oprah to help him save ObamaCare.
“But Obama hasn’t budged, and neither has Oprah. She’s hurt and angry, and I seriously doubt that Oprah will ever make up with the Obamas. She knows how to hold a grudge.”
If Klein's right, it appears Obama, besides being incapable of working with Republicans, can't even work with one of his most loyal supporters.
I guess he wasn't "The One."
