Re: The Oprah Effect

Of the numbers Karen posted, attendance is possibly the least important metric of them all. What matters the most -- and what these rallies were really about -- was culling a universe of potential voters that no other candidate has. Pundits who pontificated as to whether Oprah would change people's minds about Obama missed the point. More on that and other scenes from last night's rally in Manchester here:

The wave was just one of the ways the audience tried to work off its nervous energy. They danced, they chanted. As disco music played, those seated near the curtained hallway to the back and left of the stage gasped when an elegant black hand briefly parted the curtain. An older black woman in an Obama t-shirt, bright kerchief and big glasses had a view just inside the sanctum; she hopped to her feet and waved her hands like she had just seen Elvis. The hand outside the curtain waved and pointed to her with an ironic, hep-cat flick of the wrist: Right on.