Celebrity News:

DES MOINES - Employing the words of personal empowerment that have made her a beloved superstar, Oprah Winfrey shouted herself hoarse Saturday as she urged more than 18,000 Iowans to support Barack Obama in the nation's first caucus Jan. 3.

"This isn't about partisanship for me. This is very, very personal," Winfrey told the crowd. "I'm here because of my personal conviction about Barack Obama and what I know he can do for America."

The speech in Hy-Vee Hall in downtown Des Moines was the first of four rallies that the talk-show mogul planned to hold in key primary states on behalf of Obama. She continues Sunday in South Carolina and New Hampshire.

Winfrey's help comes at a crucial moment for Obama, who after trailing in the Iowa polls is now locked in a dead heat with candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards.

For authors, Winfrey's blessing is a virtual guarantee of bestseller status, but the self-help star has never sanctioned a presidential candidate. With her endorsement of Obama -- and her promise to campaign for him in early voting states -- observers have wondered whether her Midas touch will also work on politicians.

Traditionally, pollsters say, celebrity endorsements have little effect on actual votes, but Obama's backers have argued that she is different. She has the power, they say, to siphon female supporters from Clinton, who until now has maintained a solid grip on women voters. And she may be able to draw fans who otherwise wouldn't show up to a political rally.

Winfrey addressed those questions head-on in her speech Saturday. "So much has been said about what my jumping into this arena does or does not bring to the table of politics. I really don't know," she said, to raucous applause. "Despite all the speculation and the hype, I understand the difference between a book club and free refrigerators ... and this is a critical moment in our nation's history."

Although many in the mostly female crowd said this was their first political rally, they seemed to share Winfrey's skeptical view -- insisting that they would choose a candidate themselves, and not because a talk-show host urged them to do so. Marcella Edmonds, 45, of Des Moines, said she came simply because this was the first time Obama held a large event on a Saturday, when she could attend.

"I like what he stands for, like health care for everybody," said Edmonds, who brought along her daughter Honor, 7. Still, she acknowledged that she is a big Winfrey fan and tapes her show every day. "This was a chance to see her in the flesh," she said.

Many in the crowd seemed as fanatical about Obama as they were about Winfrey. A handful of Obama volunteers who had slipped into the press area recited snippets they had memorized of Obama's stump speech, and many of his supporters wore buttons identifying them as caucus "precinct captains." Miss Iowa, Diana Reed, also was there, wearing a tiara and sash, although she said she was undecided.

Still, people like Michele Meyer, 21, said Oprah was the main reason they headed to downtown Des Moines on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon. "I came here to see Oprah," said Meyer, a field organizer for the One Campaign, the group fighting AIDS and poverty, founded by U2 singer Bono. She said she is still undecided but is a huge Winfrey fan. "She's such an icon. She's gotten where she is not by being in movies, not by selling platinum albums."

Winfrey and Obama have a lot in common -- and not just because Oprah is "a woman with a funny name," as Obama quipped Saturday, to applause and laughter. Winfrey has built her career preaching personal salvation through the power of positive thinking. And Obama, with his campaign logo of a sun rising over farm fields, has been betting that a message of hope and renewal will resonate with voters who are weary of partisan bickering. The two have become symbols of what African-Americans can achieve in this country, but both have built their celebrity by transcending the bounds of race, appealing to white, middle-class Americans as much as their African-American counterparts.

Indeed, both drew attention only indirectly to the fact that if elected, Obama would become the first African-American president. Instead, Winfrey appealed to what she described as Obama's unifying message. "When you strip us all down, when you take away our race, our color, our ethnicity, our backgrounds, our sex," Winfrey said, "we are American in our core."