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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOprah Winfrey is \u201cactively thinking\u201d about running for president, two of her close friends told CNN Monday.<\/p>\n
The two friends, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, talked in the wake of Winfrey\u2019s extraordinary speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, which spurred chatter about a 2020 run.<\/p>\n
Some of Winfrey\u2019s confidants have been privately urging her to run, the sources said.<\/p>\n
One of the sources said these conversations date back several months. The person emphasized that Winfrey has not made up her mind about running.<\/p>\n
A representative for Winfrey has not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The Democratic race for president won\u2019t officially begin until after the 2018 midterms, but many potential candidates are already jostling for position and making trips to Iowa.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Winfrey\u201d was the talk of the entertainment world after Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. And the \u201cOprah for president?\u201d possibility was a top story on morning TV.<\/p>\n
The touchstone of her speech was the #MeToo movement. But her hopeful message \u2014 \u201cA new day is on the horizon\u201d \u2014 could have doubled as a campaign rallying cry.<\/p>\n
Many liberal-leaning celebrities and viewers certainly heard it that way. And that may have been exactly what Winfrey wanted.<\/p>\n
As some political strategists have pointed out in the past year, her fame and wealth could make her a formidable Democratic Party candidate. But insiders have their doubts too: Would Americans really choose a TV star as president twice in a row?<\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s all just talk. But her fans demonstrated a lot of wishful thinking on Twitter and Facebook after her speech.<\/p>\n
Winfrey has deflected questions about a presidential run in the past, but she has also acknowledged that President Trump\u2019s election upended assumptions about how to pursue political office.<\/p>\n
After the speech, Winfrey\u2019s longtime partner Stedman Graham was quoted saying a run is a possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to the people,\u201d Graham told a Los Angeles Times reporter. \u201cShe would absolutely do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winfrey campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 and endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016. During Clinton\u2019s campaign, she discussed the prospect of a female president and said \u201cAmerica, it\u2019s about time that we made that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it would be a \u201cseminal moment for women.\u201d But the moment has yet to happen \u2014 which is one of the reasons Sunday\u2019s speech stirred so much attention.<\/p>\n
Winfrey has deep pockets, an even deeper well of charisma, and instant name recognition, thanks to decades on \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reese Witherspoon alluded to her friend\u2019s superstar status while introducing her at the Globes: \u201cThere\u2019s only one person whose name is a verb, an adjective, and a feeling. And that is Oprah.\u201d<\/p>\n
What she lacks is political experience.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Winfrey on Bloomberg last March, interviewer David Rubenstein broached the possibility, saying \u201cIt\u2019s clear you don\u2019t need government experience to be elected president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
She indicated that the same thought had crossed her mind after Trump\u2019s election: \u201cI thought, \u2018Oh gee, I don\u2019t have the experience, I don\u2019t know enough.\u2019 And now I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Oh. Oh!’\u201d<\/p>\n
Winfrey laughed while the studio audience applauded.<\/p>\n
For political advice, she could call the Obamas. Winfrey vacationed with the couple in Tahiti last spring.<\/p>\n
When interviewed, Winfrey sometimes stokes 2020 speculation, but other times she shoots down the idea. When her best friend Gayle King brought up the idea on \u201cCBS This Morning\u201d last October, Winfrey dismissed it: \u201cThere will be no running for office of any kind for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now Winfrey has multiple jobs. She\u2019s the CEO of the cable channel OWN, a \u201cspecial correspondent\u201d for the CBS newsmagazine \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and an investor in companies like Weight Watchers.<\/p>\n
Her role at CBS News would conflict with any serious exploration of a presidential run. A CBS News spokeswoman declined to comment on Monday.<\/p>\n
Winfrey recently sold part of her stake in OWN but renewed her contract to remain CEO through 2025. It would be relatively easy to step aside from OWN for a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
The political back-and-forth has already begun. On Sunday night Winfrey\u2019s detractors immediately began circulating an old photo of Winfrey with Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who has become the symbol of Hollywood rot.<\/p>\n
But her fans portrayed her as the perfect anti-Trump candidate \u2014 that is, if she\u2019s willing to run. Videos and transcripts of the speech were widely shared on social media on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post quoted Meryl Streep saying that Winfrey \u201claunched a rocket\u201d with the speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want her to run for president,\u201d Streep told The Post. \u201cI don\u2019t think she had any intention [of declaring]. But now she doesn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the evening, Globes host Seth Meyers actually teed up the speculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOprah,\u201d Meyers said, looking out at her in the audience, \u201cin 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner \u2014 jokes about how he was unqualified to be president \u2014 and some have said that night convinced him to run. So if that\u2019s true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes!\u201d<\/p>\n
The laughs and cheers from the crowd made it clear: Winfrey would have a lot of supporters in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d even tweeted out a mock campaign poster on Monday morning. The title: \u201cHOPE-RAH.\u201d<\/p>\n
From \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show\u201d to her films and book club selections, Winfrey has promoted inspiration and unity. In fact, that\u2019s been the focus of her occasional \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segments.<\/p>\n
Her first story was a focus group with both Trump and Clinton voters. Winfrey asked them: \u201cBy the time of the next presidential election, are we more likely to have come together? Will we have sought common ground?\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: CNN<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Homepage](\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Telesol-new-ad.jpg\")
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