Ambassador Oprah? Not very likely
WASHINGTON -- As the odds are improving that Barack Obama will win the White House, there is speculation over what role pal Oprah Winfrey will play in an Obama administration.
A blog in the Financial Times guessed -- with nothing for backup -- that Winfrey would be tapped to be ambassador to England.
Winfrey no doubt would have some ''role'' in an Obama White House because she is an important international figure who has a close connection to Obama and wife Michelle.
But at least in the first years, I would guess she would not be formal or full-time anything. Why?
• • Ambassadors have to file extensive financial disclosures and I can't see Winfrey -- head of a privately held entertainment empire -- willing to do that.
• • An ambassador can't operate in total control of the press. Winfrey runs a tight press ship right now.
• • Winfrey would throw a lot of people out of work if she closed her show down. Anyway, she's got contracts to produce the show for at least through 2010.
• • So what job would be right? I could see her as a special international envoy.