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Politics

Winfrey a windfall for Obama campaign

DES MOINES, Iowa - Even before Oprah Winfrey adopts her familiar pose - microphone in hand - in the unfamiliar venue of the presidential campaign today, Barack Obama is already reaping the benefits of her high-wattage celebrity backing.

Thousands of Iowans have flocked to his office, and 1,385 have signed up as volunteers to score tickets to see the talk show diva and magazine queen. The campaign declines to say how many tickets have been distributed for two events today in Iowa but says no one will be turned away.

Winfrey has never backed a political candidate before, but on behalf of her Chicago hometown senator she is making the two stops in Iowa today - in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids - before heading Sunday to South Carolina and New Hampshire with Obama and his wife. The campaign moved the biggest event to the 80,000-seat University of South Carolina football stadium after running out of the 18,000 tickets originally available.

Obama is engaged in a tight, three-way race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, and the Jan. 3 caucuses are less than four weeks away. A possible Senate vote that might have pulled candidates from campaign events today was not needed as energy legislation stalled.

HUCKABEE ON MOVE: Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a nationwide AP-Ipsos poll showed Friday. Rudy Giuliani still leads, at 26 percent among Republican and GOP-leaning voters, but Huckabee has 18 percent, up from 10 percent in an AP-Ipsos survey a month ago and 3 percent in July. The poll was conducted Dec. 3-5.

[Last modified December 8, 2007, 01:16:48]