Is Oprah Winfrey Afraid of Sarah Palin?

Is Oprah Winfrey afraid of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? According to a story on the Drudge Report and on Hot Air, it seems that the popular television personality will not have the Vice Presidential candidate on her afternoon show.

It seems that while "half her staff" want to put Sarah Palin on, Oprah Winfrey and her top people are adamantly against it. The reason seems to stem from fears of how such an appearance by the popular woman candidate would affect the campaign of Barack Obama for President, which Oprah Winfrey is supporting.

Oprah Winfrey also recently refused to have Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on during a book tour.

Oprah Winfrey introduced Barack Obama late last year in an event in which she was very effusive in her praise of the candidate. Even though Oprah's very mention of a product, such as a book, ensures that the product will receive a healthy spike in sales, she got an angry backlash from many of her viewers over her endorsement of Barack Obama. Oprah Winfrey's freeze out of Sarah Palin will likely not endear her to her mainly female audience.

The largest part of Oprah Winfrey's audience are women over the age of 55, mostly married, tending toward conservative. Sarah Palin is very popular among this demographic. From a purely business standpoint, having Sarah Palin on the Oprah Winfrey show would be a no brainer. Sarah Palin, in public settings so far, has come across as very personable and friendly and would seem to be a perfect guest for any talk show such as Oprah Winfrey's.

It seems, though, that Oprah Winfrey is willing to alienate her audience again for purely political reasons. Purely from a career standpoint, the decision to ban Sarah Palin from the Oprah Winfrey Show seems rather odd.

Oprah Winfrey did not use to choose her guests on a political basis. During the 2000 Campaign, even though it was pretty clear that she supported the Democratic candidate, Oprah Winfrey had both Vice President Al Gore and then Governor George W. Bush on her show. In fact she seemed quite visibly charmed by Bush during his appearance.