BREITBART: 'Say It Ain't So, O!'

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By Andrew Breitbart

Then there was the post-Denver post-speech hoorah: "I think it's the most powerful thing I have ever experienced," Miss Winfrey told her fellow believers in the press corps. "I cried my eyelashes off."

The scenario reads like the MasterCard campaign: "Priceless."

Yet since Miss Winfrey endorsed Mr. Obama and his political fortunes immediately skyrocketed, Oprah has seen her exceptionally high popularity take a drastic hit.

According to a Gallup/USA Today poll in March 2007, Miss Winfrey possessed a whopping 74 percent approval rating. (Incidentally, Mrs. Palin's approval rating in Alaska is a Mother Theresa-like 80 percent.) Miss Winfrey's support dipped to 61 percent by August 2007, and during the primaries her approval dropped further to 55 percent - the lowest in her career.

The Palin punt should wash away many more ardent supporters, many conservative and Republican Oprah-watching faithful among them.

People marvel that Mr. Obama was able to slay Mrs. Clinton, formerly the inevitable Democratic choice. But as they say, behind every successful man, there's a strong woman. In Mr. Obama's case, it's certainly not Michelle.

It's Oprah.

If Mr. Obama is elected, no one will have more power and access than Oprah Winfrey - the ultimate lobbyist.

But maybe those millions of women that she played for fools - and deprived of an election cycle filled with exceptional female electoral achievements and electrifying television moments, many among them Hillary followers and a cadre of Sarah supporters - will deny her that historic opportunity.

Hell hath no fury like an Oprah Book Club member scorned.

• Andrew Breitbart is the founder of the news Web site breitbart.com and is co-author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - the Case Against Celebrity."