NPR: Notes on Oprah's and Obama's South Carolina Visit

Notes on Oprah's and Obama's South Carolina Visit

NPR reporter Audie Cornish attended Sunday's campaign event in South Carolina for Illinois Senator Barack Obama, featuring an appearance by Oprah Winfrey. She sent along these notes:

Originally the event was scheduled for an arena called the Colonial Center which seated 18,000. After the tickets they printed for that ran out in middle of last week, campaign organizers decided to move to another space. The next biggest location in Columbia is the William Brice Stadium, the 10th largest on-campus stadium in the country, seating 80,000. But the campaign set up didn't imply they expect to fill it.
The press riser is practically at the field goal line. With maybe 20-30 feet between that riser and the stage, which they will likely fill with supporters. People are t-r-i-c-k-l-i-n-g in ...

When I arrived at 8:30AM (for the 2:30 event) the fog wasn't even up. There were a dozen or so people standing outside. The first person in line was not who I expected. Justin Areer, young, white and male from Gilbert, South Carolina said he was not so much a fan of Oprah but rather a superfan of Obama's. He was wearing two Obama pins.

Behind him were two African-American women with collapsible chairs and coffee. "We thought we were going to be first," said Shavon Scott of Columbia SC. Women voters are obviously the target, but in South Carolina black women alone are likely to cast 30 percent of the primary vote.

Regarding Oprah ...

"Her fame and all that is important to her, but to me as a working person and elected official here, it doesn't mean anything. I applaud her for coming but come with something. If you build a school in Africa, come and build one in South Carolina ..."said Linda Dorgan, an African-American member of the Spartanburg City Council.

"We are not led by any particular one person. we think for ourselves and deal with the issues that affect our lives."

Also of note ... the South Carolina campaign folks say leading up to the event, 2307 people signed up to do volunteer work while getting tickets for the event. They say 68% of those folks have never contacted the campaign before.

So ...

While Clinton's response to the Obama-Oprah hype has been to campaign with her mother and daughter Chelsea in Iowa, former president Bill Clinton was dispatched to South Carolina ahead of schedule to speak before a chapter of AKA, one of the oldest and most venerable historically black sororities.

Meanwhile native son John Edwards responded by organizing a media conference call on Friday with some of top black supporters in the area.

8:44 AM ET | 12-10-2007 | permalink

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