(CNN) - Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is set to headline a Barack Obama event in Los Angeles Sunday, two days before Democrats in California and 21 other states head to the polls.
The event will mark Winfrey's return to the campaign trail two months after the media mogul stumped for the Illinois senator in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, drawing record-breaking crowds and heavy media coverage.
Obama's wife Michelle and Caroline Kennedy will also attend the event, though the Illinois senator himself is scheduled to be in Delaware that day.
– CNN's Chris Welch contributed to this report
Clinton and Bush are statistically tied as the nation's most admired man.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Looks like all of Bill Clinton's time on the campaign trail this year for his wife Hillary may be paying off in the polls for more than one member of the family.
Sitting presidents usually top Gallup's list of the country's most admired man, and this year is no exception: President Bush leads, as the choice of 10 percent of those polled. But in this survey, he's in a statistical tie with former President Bill Clinton, at 8 percent. In the last survey, there was an 8-point margin of separation, with Bush leading 13 to 5 percent, and a 17-point difference in a 2004 poll. (Full poll results [PDF])
Former Vice President Al Gore, who won several high-profile awards in 2007 for his work to raise awareness about climate change, also shot up in the poll - now in third place with 6 percent - 5 percentage points higher than last year.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama nudges out the Rev. Billy Graham and Nelson Mandela for fourth place with 5 percent. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani also make the list - all at 1 percent.
Hillary Clinton tops Gallup's most admired woman list, with 18 percent. But popular talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who has campaigned for Obama, Clinton's chief rival, is statistically tied with the New York Democrat at 16 percent. Both have gained in this year's poll: Clinton was at 13 percent in 2006 while Winfrey was at 9 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,011 Americans December 14-16, and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Oprah and Obama were greeted by record crowds on the campaign trail last weekend.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Oprah Winfrey's recent campaign swing with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was greeted with wild cheers and record-breaking crowds.
But some of the talk show host's fans aren't happy she's become politically outspoken, and many are sounding off on Oprah's Web site.
"Oprah," says one, "count me as tuned out for now." Another writes, "It's a real turn off for a lot of your fans." And yet another says "She has crossed a line and lost my trust completely."
But, what's especially interesting about reading Oprah's Web site is why some of those fans seem to be upset: the way she stumped for Obama, they say, seemed to pit white against black.
"I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America,"
Oprah said while on the stump with Obama in South Carolina. "Dr. King dreamed the dream, we get to vote that dream into reality."
Back on Oprah's Web site, one commenter wrote, "Winfrey has artfully begun her stump speeches alongside Obama with a negative racial tone."
And another commenter wrote, "Don't pit blacks against whites."
Interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America Wednesday, Winfrey rejected the notion she is supporting Obama merely because he is black.
"I get a little..I guess the word is 'offended,'" Winfrey said. "To think that I would be supporting someone just because of their skin would mean we haven't moved far from Dr. King's speech in 1963, where he said we should be judged by the content of our character not the color of their skin."
In another interview, Winfrey told CNN that she weighed carefully whether she should get involved in politics, wondering whether she would "lose viewers as a result."
"I made the decision that I have the right to do it as an American citizen," she said.
Related video: Oprah hits 3 states for Obama
Related video: Oprah's S.C. Obama pitch
Related video: Obama: 'We're doing it'
Related video: Jeanne Moos: Obama-Oprah soul
– CNN's Carol Costello
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Now you can take the Best Political Team with you on your iPod.
In the latest Best Political Podcast, Bill Schneider reports on new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll numbers that show Mike Huckabee in a virtual tie with Rudy Giuliani, Candy Crowley takes a look back at the "Oprah-bama" barnstorm through three early primary states, and Ed Henry has a report on the White House's reaction to the CIA tapes controversy.
Plus, everybody has to start somewhere. Wolf Blitzer tells you what some of the presidential candidates said about their worst jobs.
Click here to subscribe to The Best Political Podcast
Watch Candy Crowley's report about Oprah Winfrey's first foray into politics.
(CNN) - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey ventured into presidential politics over the weekend. The media mogul made campaign stops in three key early primary states and rallied crowds on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama who is in a tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Watch Candy Crowley's report about Winfrey's 'Oprah-bama' tour.
Related video: Jeanne Moos on Obama-Oprah soul
Watch Suzanne Malveaux's report about "Oprahlooza."
(CNN) - In a close race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Hillary Clinton, D-New York, are both seeking the support of female voters.
Suzanne Malveaux reports from Columbia, South Carolina about talk show host Oprah Winfrey's possible influence on these key voters - who are also the core of the media mogul's loyal viewership.
Watch the entire 20 minute introduction by Winfrey to a crowd of 29,000 in South Carolina.
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) – The crowd traveled here from across South Carolina to see Oprah Winfrey speak, but the biggest applause line at Sunday's rally came straight from Barack Obama's stump speech: "The name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot" next year, he said to a huge roar from the audience.
"I'm sick of politics as usual," Winfrey told the crowd of 29,000 voters and 350 credentialed journalists at Williams-Brice Stadium, after an introduction from Obama's wife Michelle. "We need politicians who know how to tell the truth. But more importantly we need politicians who know how to be the truth."
Her speech, light on policy and heavy on the Illinois senator's message of change, was similar to the remarks she gave in Iowa on Saturday. But if the balmy weather and the football stadium weren't sign enough, it was clear from their speeches that they were in a different part of the country.
WASHINGTON (CNN)–Look for more red-hot scrutiny of Republican Mike Huckabee this week, the underdog turned top dog in Iowa.
A Newsweek poll shows Huckabee now has a whopping 22 point lead over Mitt Romney in Iowa - other polls don't show as big a Huckabee lead, but with a little over three weeks to go until the lead-off contest, the former governor of Arkansas is now the one to beat.
Expect Huckabee to be a target when the GOP candidates square off in the Des Moines Register debate on Wednesday.
Romney, in particular, will be trying to regain his footing in Iowa, where he once enjoyed a comfortable lead.
Thursday, it's the Democrats' turn to debate in Des Moines - with the three-way slugfest between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards taking center stage.
Clinton and Obama refocus on the Hawkeye state after dueling weekend events in South Carolina featuring superstar surrogates: Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey.
But no one is bigger than Republican Ron Paul's new campaign vehicle: A blimp - floating up the Eastern seaboard this week - headed right for the first in the nation primary state of New Hampshire.
-CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN)–Not being a meteorologist, I can't explain how it rains when the temperature outside is a mere 11 degrees (The Weather Channel says it feels like 2 degrees, to which I can attest).
Packed practically to the rafters, Oprah fans and Obama supporters braved the not un-daunting elements, and showed up by the thousands at the U.S. Cellular Center on Saturday night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The crowd, a broad mix of ages, races and ethnicities, was equally rapt by both the candidate and the talk-show host and seemed ebullient even while waiting for the headliners – of course, just being inside on a night like tonight is cause enough for celebration.
The event, Sen. Obama and Ms. Winfrey's second of the day, touched on a broad array of themes including: education, housing foreclosures, health care, racial and religious divides in the U.S. and the "politics as usual" fatigue.
Ms. Winfrey strode the stage, urging the crowd on by repeating the mantra, "the moment is now" – the introduction of Obama culminated with Oprah saying simply, "He is the one."
As for the candidate himself, Senator Obama began by joking with the crowd saying "you know it's a good program when I am the third best speaker".
He also had the crowd laughing and cheering by referring to his distant relation to Vice President Dick Cheney. The Senator cracked, "everyone has a crazy uncle".
After being introduced by Michelle Obama, Winfrey took the stage to the strains of Aretha Franklin and immediately referenced the weather, saying that on the road between Des Moines and Cedar Rapids they "were slipping and sliding" and she assumed that no one would be at the event. Oprah said she'd "be home in my footsie pajamas" if it wasn't for Barack Obama.
–CNN Producer Carey Bodenheimer
Bill Clinton will be campaigning for his wife in South Carolina just a day before Obama has Oprah Winfrey there for a large event.
(CNN) - It will be the battle of the rock star surrogates this weekend, with a last minute trip by former President Bill Clinton scheduled for South Carolina as Oprah Winfrey campaigns with Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Clinton's appearance for his wife Senator Hillary Clinton was a surprise, added amid saturation media coverage of Obama's three-state swing.
The former President told reporters at a stop in New York City Friday the trip was a "coincidence", though he'll be in South Carolina the day before Obama and Winfrey stop in Columbia.
During a day of appearances in Charleston, Clinton will speak on health care disparity, attend a forum on the subject, visit patients and families at a Children's Hospital and stop at a downtown Charleston market.
The dueling trips come as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama compete for a bigger share of the critical African-American vote in South Carolina, where the former president remains a popular figure.
Hillary Clinton campaigns Saturday in Iowa, as Obama and Winfrey hold two rallies in Iowa.
–CNN Political Desk Managing Editor Steve Brusk
From CNN Politics
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