Oprah Urges Women to Vote, Or Else

Morford: Imagine Bush filches another election in November. And within a very short time, as many as 30 U.S. states have recriminalized abortion and made repressing women and hating sex fun again, as young American females everywhere who thought their right to choose was pretty much incontrovertible and indisputable and unfailing and who therefore didn't bother to vote in '00 or '04 suddenly go, oh holy freaking hell.

Hello, 1950s. Hello, coat-hanger surgery. Hello, millions of despondent daughters of uptight parents. Hello, dead or mutilated teenage girls who suffer botched procedures. Hello, a fresh national nightmare, revisited, regurgitated, reborn. And hello again to smug right-wing males who've wanted to put women back in their place for the past 50 years. Check that: 200 years. Check that: forever.

Of course, Oprah can do much more than urge women to vote, she could launch a sea change in the electorate as CNN ponders An Oprah moment: While the opportunity to address 40 million to 60 million people at once has come and gone with the debates, there still may be an opportunity for a candidate to reach 10 million to 20 million people at once -- and for free. In particular, a major interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" or "60 Minutes" could capture such attention. In the days ahead, watch to see if either side -- or both -- agree to such a high-profile move to reach a large group of voters quickly and set off a broader media buzz.

No retreat, no surrender

I was watching CSPAN which covered the Kerry / Edwards rally in Iowa and saw how optimistic and hopeful they were. What a contrast to the scowling, smirking, smearing, invitation-only high-gloss Bush / Cheney rallies. For the first time in a long while I thought there was a big difference in the candidates even with the Kerry move to the middle and with no difference in official plans for Iraq. It struck me Kerry reminded me of Robert Kennedy after winning California, or John Kennedy preparing for his reelection and optimistic while visiting Dallas and I became fearful that "they" wouldn't allow this. Could a "Kennedy movement" be the October surprise?