Survey: "Oprah Factor" Working for Obama

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Amid the endless "Does Oprah's Endorsement Matter?" stories (NO!) comes a missive Thursday that yes, the blessing from The Big O indeed boosted the fortunes of The Little O.

Our good friends at The Pew Weekly News Interest Index say "Oprah Winfrey's well-publicized appearances with Barack Obama have raised Obama's visibility, especially among African Americans." This branch of the Pew family spits out weekly reports monitoring what news stories Americans are most closely following.

"Roughly a quarter of Americans (26 percent) say they have heard more about Obama recently than any other presidential candidate, up from just 10 percent in November," say the Pews. "Meanwhile, though Hillary Clinton remains the most visible candidate overall, the proportion citing her as the candidate they have heard the most about fell from a high of 61 percent in November to 41 percent in the current poll."

The Pews say that "Obama's increased visibility is no doubt linked to his campaign appearances with Winfrey. Fully 74 percent of the public could correctly identify Obama as the candidate Oprah had endorsed."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=22701

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1. Here's a Direct to the Pew Survey -

Summary of Findings

Figure
Oprah Winfrey's well-publicized appearances with Barack Obama have raised Obama's visibility, especially among African Americans. Roughly a quarter of Americans (26%) say they have heard more about Obama recently than any other presidential candidate, up from just 10% in November. Meanwhile, though Hillary Clinton remains the most visible candidate overall, the proportion citing her as the candidate they have heard the most about fell from a high of 61% in November to 41% in the current poll.

Far more African Americans cite Obama (51%) than Clinton (27%) as the candidate they have heard the most about recently. In November, these figures were roughly the reverse, with 50% naming Clinton and 15% Obama. Whites were also more likely to name Obama this month compared with last month, but the increase was not as great (23% this month up from 9% in November).

Obama's increased visibility is no doubt linked to his campaign appearances with Winfrey. Fully 74% of the public could correctly identify Obama as the candidate Oprah had endorsed. Awareness of Winfrey's support for Obama was equally high across parties, genders and racial groups.

Most Americans view Winfrey's support for Obama as a plus for his campaign. Six-in-ten say her support will help his candidacy, only 1% thinks it will hurt his candidacy, and 31% say it will not make any difference. The same percentage said Winfrey's endorsement would help Obama in a September poll. Democrats, Republicans and Independents are all in agreement that Oprah's support for Obama will help not hurt his candidacy (64% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans, and 61% of Independents say it will help).

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=379