Obama gets a boost from Winfrey - and from a new poll

She's the most powerful women in television and one of her book club recommendations can make an unknown writer a millionaire overnight. But can Oprah Winfrey send a man to the White House? After weeks of speculation that she would do something to help Barack Obama in his bid to become America's first black president, it was confirmed yesterday that Oprah will campaign in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire on the weekend of December 8 and 9.

The news came on the same day that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton received surprisingly bad results from a new Zogby opinion poll, which shows that she would lose to every one of the top five Republican candidates if the presidential election were held now. In previous similar polls, she always led against the Republicans. The Zogby poll also shows that Barack Obama and third-placed John Edwards would defeat or tie with every one of the Republicans.

Oprah has been a Barack Obama supporter since before he declared he was running. She has described him as "my favourite guy", and held a gala dinner in September which raised $3m for his campaign funds.

Former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, tried to play down the significance of Oprah's support, telling the Washington Times: "I'm not sure who watches her. Maybe young moms, maybe people who are retired. But we have the support of most retired Democrats."

But the Obama camp could hardly contain its glee that the most popular woman on television is on their side. Obama said: "She can reach people who might not otherwise be thinking about politics." Her support could be critical in South Carolina, where African-Americans make up 55 per cent of the state's population and are shown in recent polls to be torn between Obama and Clinton.

After months of media speculation that Hillary Clinton would walk through the Democratic nomination process and straight into the White House, the tide appears to be turning. ·