Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Trust me, despite all the excuse-making you’ll see in the snippets below, it’s because he’s been bad for her career…

Excerpts from Politico:

When Barack Obama needed Oprah Winfrey’s help, she delivered.

When he needed an infusion of campaign cash, she threw a star-studded fundraiser last summer at her California estate. When he needed a big-name draw in the early-primary states, she addressed massive crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

And when Obama was looking for a late boost in a critical Super Tuesday state, Winfrey was once again there for him, giving up her Sunday afternoon for a Los Angeles rally.

But as Obama faces his most crucial primary day in months and struggles to move past the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy, Winfrey is far from the campaign trail, appearing more focused on sweeps — not election — season.

Indeed, since Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, Oprah has been absent from Obama’s side. Her people say other projects have kept her too busy to hit the hustings for the candidate. His people say they’d love to have her but don’t need her help in attracting crowds anymore. Either way, people expecting to see her on the stump any time soon may have to hold their breath longer than David Blaine did this week on her namesake talk show.

Yet it would seem like the perfect time for Obama to call in his super surrogate, considering the next two states up for grabs: North Carolina has a significant African-American population, and Indiana shares a border and a media market with Illinois, where Winfrey resides and tapes her talk show.

Oprah could be an important asset, said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. In North Carolina, she could act as a counterweight to a Clinton ad featuring Maya Angelou and reassure African-American voters after the Wright controversy (even though she has reportedly attended services at Trinity United Church of Christ in the past). In Indiana, she could appeal to white working-class women.

“It would be very helpful,” Duffy said. “Part of the problem is she is not somebody who can drop everything. In some ways, it might be easier to rearrange George Bush’s schedule than Oprah Winfrey’s schedule.”

…Yet it’s also true that Oprah’s rare foray into politics proved controversial among certain segments of her largely female fan base, leading to speculation that her absence from the trail reflects a conscious decision to dial back her involvement for reasons other than business projects. After all, the scale of her media empire suggests Winfrey is rarely without pressing business commitments.

When asked about it Friday in Indiana, Obama downplayed the suggestion that Oprah’s popularity has declined because of her involvement with his campaign.

“Oprah’s a dear friend — she’s got a lot of stuff going on, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on.

According to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll released after her three-state campaign tour with Obama in December, Winfrey’s favorability rating dropped to 55 percent, down from 68 percent in September.

Winfrey’s website lit up with criticism, too. One writer called her a “traitor” for not supporting the first viable female presidential candidate, setting off a heated debate on her comment boards among her critics and supporters.

By February, following her last public appearance in support of Obama at UCLA with Michelle Obama, Maria Shriver and Caroline Kennedy, Oprah’s TV ratings came in at 7.92 million and then topped 8 million again by March.

In April, well after her last high-profile Obama appearance, her ratings dipped to 5.98 million — but so did the ratings of other syndicated shows, such as “Wheel of Fortune.”

“Just as I attribute none of ‘Wheel of Fortune’s’ decline to Pat Sajak’s political affiliation, as an analyst I don’t think people checked out of Oprah because she supports Barack Obama,” Seidman said. “The seasonal trends for everything, across the board, are down.”

Donna Bojarsky, a political consultant who works closely with celebrities and the Democratic Party, says she sees nothing unusual in Oprah’s absence from Obama’s side.

“She’s just busy,” Bojarsky said.

Noting that Winfrey hasn’t endorsed candidates in the past, she said there’s a benefit to keeping her appearances “highly valued and rare.”