No one knows the influence of TV characters like a person in charge of young children.
“Brush your teeth and we can go watch Ellllmoooo!”
“Caillou will be on after your naaaaaap!”
“Sponge Bob never cries in the bath!”
Trot out a favorite name and the hellions are putty in your hands. Or, at least more inclined to follow directions as you beg for one, tiny, ounce of cooperation.
Political Nanny wonders if this technique will work on grown-ups too? She won't know exactly until we see the outcome of the Iowa caucuses or a few of the primaries (or until someone does a poll after this weekend). In any case, she will be monitoring The Event in South Carolina on Sunday. That’s when Oprah Winfrey makes the first of several scheduled appearances before a live studio audience … no, no, no, … before a mob looking under their stadium seats for vintage-inspired, combed cotton twin sets … no! gah! That’s when Oprah will stand in front of an adoring crowd, telling her throngs of followers to vote for Barack Obama because he’s inspiring/a hero/a network of angels/remembers his spirit. But, like, it’s not going to alllll be about him, right? We want to see our girl!
The anticipation is killing us. Will she talk? How long? Will she ask questions? Present a check? (She's so going to present a check.) Will there be facing yellow chairs or a podium and a microphone? (Chair, chairs, bring the chairs!)
Will the throngs of ticket-holders – they moved the event to a stadium that holds 80,000 (!) – get to meet Oprah, get their pictures with her, go home with new Sony Cybershots and a tin of hand-crafted brownies?
Oh. And we wonder what Obama’s going to say. (Think he’ll say anything to Oprah. Think they’ll hug. What’s Oprah going to wear? Think she’ll do one of those remotes with Gayle where they pump their own gas? God, that’s hilarious. And do you think she’ll take commercial breaks and do that thing where she repeats herself, “we’ll be right back. We’ll be right back.”?)
