Oprah Winfrey For President: Is It a Good Idea?
The night’s biggest story was supposed to be the wardrobes from the celebrities there.
People at the event wore all black in response to the harassment of women, and the ones who didn’t (a total of three) had their own statements to preach.
But Oprah Winfrey stole the show with her speech.
The most memorable part of the speech, her closing, left many wondering about the future:
“So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say “Me too” again.”
Can Winfrey really change history and become the next president of the United States of America?
In her speech she doesn’t bluntly state she will run for 2020 presidency; however, this isn’t the first time people have speculated about a run for the office.
In 2015, Oprah was bombarded with questions about running for president in which she answered: “No, that is not going to happen. Not in this lifetime.”
However, two years later, she teased of running for a presidential role on the David Rubenstein Show:
Rubenstein: It’s clear that you don’t need government experience to be like the president.
Oprah: Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough and now thinking ‘oh’.
A tweet in September of 2017 made her definitive “no” from 2015 questionable: 
This tweet was a response to an article “Democrats Best Hope for 2020: Oprah” that claims that to beat the presidency of Donald Trump, the Democratic party would have to fight back with a celebrity of their own.
So now the question is, would we vote for her if she ran for presidency?
Urbana High School staff and peers had their own input in the topic.
Some high school students think it’s great to have her as president. Most would claim that she’d be better than the current president we have this term while others just really like Oprah.
However there are some who think otherwise.
A 2017 graduate from UHS, Reina Revina had her opinion about the future of 2020.
She voted on the election of 2016 for the first time and strongly believes of voting every term.
When asked about voting again, and possibly for Oprah she states:
“After the sh*t show that was 2017 I have hope that people are just sick of this bullsh*t and will go out and vote. But would I vote for Oprah? No. I don’t believe in the hype thing. I love Oprah and I love what she did at the Golden Globes but celebrities just should not be the president. People have to realize that; I want someone that is gonna lead and make the country better.”
UHS teacher, Julie Erlinger, as a dual credit english teacher she could consider herself very involved in politics and current events. She states, “it has been a very interesting year. Very different from politics before and rather chaotic.” The chaos from this year’s events she doesn’t believe she can set specific blame on one person, but she hopes for stability in the following election year.
Can Oprah bring that to us, can she get things done, can she help unite us instead of fighting against each other?
She states her input to the topic of Oprah for president:
“I’m very familiar with Oprah in terms of her writing, acting. I’m familiar in terms of her television show. I’m familiar with her terms of celebrity. She seems very charitable, very giving, she appears on a show I see to be a good listener. She seems kind, I’m going to be honest I don’t know that I like her as a candidate. Although things can change once ZI see more of her. I just need to see that she has a knowledge and interest in political side of things. Running a country takes that and it can’t be just celebrity. I would worry about the celebrity taking over the other side of that.”
Even Trump even has something to say about Oprah for president.
When asked by reporters about her as future president he states that: “I like Oprah, I don’t think she’s going to run,” he said, repeating, “I don’t think she’s going to run.”
He thinks she won’t run or hopes she won’t run? Either way if she does Trump can only believe that he would beat her in the campaign.
The future of presidency is ultimately in the hands of the electoral vote, but don’t let that intimidate you into not voting. As American citizens we still have voices to share and a vote can mean a lot.
Like Revina said, we should have a responsible leader as head of America and no a Hollywood celebrity, “someone who can make promises that they can achieve; basically someone who’s a little boring.”
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This is a good article Shauri. I like how you got different opinions.