Pat Dollard

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Newsday:

No, bigbigbigbig news.

Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey are meeting.

Or. I should say, Sarah’s doing “Oprah.”

Just announced. The details:

“In a world exclusive, Oprah Winfrey will interview former Alaska
governor Sarah Palin for an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to air Monday, Nov. 16, 2009. Winfrey and Palin will meet for the very first time on the episode, which will mark Palin’s first interview to discuss her upcoming book, “Going Rogue: An American Life” and her first-ever appearance on the “Oprah” show.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin burst onto the national political scene as running mate for Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. Now, following her decision to step down as governor of her home state of Alaska, and on the eve of the release of her first book, Palin will speak first to Oprah in a world exclusive interview. ”

PHOTOS: Sarah Palin’s family and photos of Sarah Palin’s early years.

This is interesting for a handful of reasons, and here’s one – Oprah had previously barred Sixpack from the show, during the late hours of the election, after she had had Dem candidate Obama on a couple of times.

In other words, some people thought O was using her show to get one person elected over another, and jeez, that’s not fair, is it?

[In fact, Harpo insists that Obama DID NOT appear on the show when he was a candidate, and here's the statement O made at the time:

"The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue [Drudge broke a story, which suggested Palin had been barred from the program]. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.” — Oprah Winfrey, September 5, 2008

The show adds, “Barack Obama has appeared on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ twice to discuss his books, once in January 2005 and once in October 2006. Both of Senator Obama’s appearances were made before he announced his candidacy and he has not appeared since.”]

Of course, this is all hair-splitting to the nth degree. Oprah was totally in the bag for Obama – I’m convinced she got him elected. She was the fifth column of the entire campaign, and when she left the show for the stump, then victory was assured.

Nevertheless, this is O’s show; she can use it to plug hair extension products or presidential products. That’s her prerogative. But the whole thing did get very strange. Palin, at the time, was the hottest commodity in the land — THE get of gets – and O pointedly said she was done having prez candidates on the show. I’m not sure Palin ever said much about this, or tweeted anything – since she only tweets and writes pages in her forthcoming bio, which this show will help sell.

This became a big/little issue in the waning days of the campaign. I personally petitioned to get Palin on “Oprah.” Apparently, the blog post has finally found its way to O’s desk.

What will O ask P?

Hey! We can think of the questions right now – save O the trouble of research.

What did you really think of Mac?

When will you announce your candidacy for the prez?

Please please please tell me what you think of David Letterman’s recent, umm, troubles?

Can you really see Russia from your house?

I have just one one one question on Levi Johnston. I promise. Just one. Maybe two.

(OK, those are for starters. Harpo tells me that there is no word on where the interview will be conducted — at the house that overlooks Russia, or in the Kingdom of Oprah, otherwise known as Chicago.)