It's just Oprah and Barry, girl.

So our girl Oprah has made it clear that Barack Obama is one of her favorite things. She'll hit the campaign trail with him this weekend, making stops in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. 

There's been much chatter about whether or not Oprah's endorsement of Obama will actually help his candidacy.  Pundits point out that celebrity endorsements historically have not moved voters to support political candidates. Only 37% of Americans, according to an October Gallup poll, believe that a celebrity endorsement is "very important" or "somewhat important."  Only 8% feel that an Oprah endorsement would make them more likely to vote for Obama.

Wha-hu-hu-hut-ever! say the folks in the Obama camp.  They don't need Oprah to convince people to vote for Obama - well, it would be nice if she would - but they think Obama can do that.  They know that are a whole lot of other ways that Oprah will help the campaign:

1. Chicks dig Oprah. We love her!  We trust her! So we are overwhelmingly the ones who will attend any Oprah/Obama event and pay attention to the news coverage about it.  If Obama is able to pull any of us to his side, well, that's a steal from Hillary Clinton's strongest voting bloc - us gals.

2. Oprah will attract a whole lotta media attention from traditional political news sources as well as from media outlets that don't usually cover politics.  Mo press, mo peeps, mo betta. O news is good news for Obama.

3. Oprah can get a whole lotta people in the house.  (Shoot! We might have to roll to Iowa, New Hampshire or the S.C. ourselves.) Obama will have a shot at winning over Oprah fans who don't know who he is (like those who live under rocks), aren't that familiar with him or have decided to support another candidate.

4. After Oprah packs the house, Obama can make his "give me your email addresses, my pretties!" speech.  Once we're in the campaign's clutches, they'll make sure that they're able reach out and touch us again and again with follow up messages. 

5. And maybe Oprah can convince people to vote for Obama afterall.  She did get millions of us to believe that our most hated books from high school English class are actually pleasure reading.  And she also convinced us that, while we wouldn't read that mess for free back in school, we should pay to read those books now. We bought her story and the books too.

Some doubt that Oprah can get folks to vote for Obama, because voters, especially Iowa voters, are turned off by sleek celebrity endorsements.  But Oprah's no high fallutin' celebrity! She's our best friend, girl!  We know her.  She comes to our house every afternoon at 4, and we talk, laugh, cry, redecorate, read books....

Oprah's personal endorsement will introduce many of us to Obama as a friend.  So if anyone asks if we know Barack Obama, we can truthfully answer, "Yeah, we know him through our girl Oprah."  And then when election day comes, we'll go vote for our boy Barry.