Queen of talk to campaign for Obama
CONWAY, N.H. -- Oprah Winfrey is poised to campaign for White House hopeful Barack Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Obama revealed Winfrey will stump for him while at Manchester Central High School, where he unveiled an $18 billion plan to improve preschool through high school education, funded in part by delaying moon exploration.
Having Winfrey stump for Obama in the first caucus and primary states gives Obama a megasurrogate. Winfrey opened her Montecito, Calif., estate to Obama last September for a $3 million fund-raiser.
Obama talked about Winfrey helping after his speech when a man, Ralph Hoagland, asked Obama if Oprah was going to campaign for him in New Hampshire.
"First she's coming to Iowa," Obama told Hoagland, a co-founder of the CVS chain. New Hampshire will come later. "We're just doing it one state at a time."
Later, teaching teens in a study hall a lesson in what not to do, Obama told students he experimented with drugs and booze when he was their age. Obama made the disclosures in his memoir, which has made youthful drug use a non-issue in his political life.
As snow was falling outside, Obama talked about the distractions of growing up in Hawaii because it was easy to "goof off" in a place where the weather was good. He added, "You know, I made some bad decisions that I've actually written about. You know, there were times you know I got into drinking. I experimented with drugs."
He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Obama's claim that his experience while a youngster living in Indonesia makes him an expert in international affairs. "Now voters will judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face," Clinton said, noting she has met "countless" world leaders.
"I'm wondering which world leader told her that we needed to invade Iraq," Obama said.