Seems like President Obama's number one fan has conflicting views with her Savior over whether or not it's okay to make a buck in today's America!
Just days before the President blasted America(President Obama Commencement Speech To Arizona State Grads: America Sucks, Capitalism Sucks, Our Military Sucks (Complete Video)), Ms. Winfrey celebrated her success by saying "It's great to have a private jet!"
The Wall Street Journal reports on Oprah's pro-capitalism efforts:
The private-jet industry may have finally found its savior.Oprah Winfrey:
During a speech to Duke University’s graduating class, Oprah talked about the secrets and joys of success. Among them: owning a mansion and a jet.
“It’s great to have a nice home. It’s great to have nice homes! It’s great to have a nice home that just escaped the fire in Santa Barbara,” she told the students. “It’s great to have a private jet. Anyone that tells you that having your own private jet
isn’t great is lying to you.”
She went on to explain that “you haven’t completed the circle of success until you help someone else move to a higher ground and get to a better place.”
The golden nugget here is the jet part. In these times of hair-shirt capitalism and envy politics, the wealthy have been going to great lengths to pretend they don’t enjoy luxury or want nice stuff. If Oprah were like most of the faux-populist rich today, she would have said something like, “I don’t need private jets, in fact I’m happier flying commercial and living in a small house. I like the simple life.” Of course, she would be lying.
But she didn’t. She told the truth, which is that flying in a private jet is one of the great material perks that money can buy. (Talk to anyone who used to be rich and they will say one thing they really miss is the jet. Apparently Oprah’s ride is a $42 million custom-build Global Express XRS built by Bombardier Aerospace).
For the past few months, the private-jet industry has been mounting an enormous public-relations campaign to get people to fly private again. It will take a recovery and wealth creation to really turn the business around. Perhaps for the public-relations part, it should forget all the boring arguments about jobs and productivity and efficiency and run a picture of Oprah with one simple line: “It’s Great to Have a Private Jet.”
From Duke University:
“Of all of the wonderful things that have happened to me, including receiving an honorary degree from Duke … you really haven’t completed that circle of success unless you have helped someone else to move forward,” Winfrey told a larger-than-usual crowd of graduates, families and friends under an overcast sky. “How can I help somebody else move to higher ground? That is success. That’s it. That’s why we’re all alive.”
She appeared to cheers and a shout of “We love you, Oprah,” to which she responded: “You love me even though I’m a doctor now?” She then urged mothers in the audience to rise for Mother’s Day and extended personal congratulations to her godson, William Bumpus, a graduating senior and son of Winfrey’s friend Gayle King. “Will never wants people to know he knows me,” Winfrey joked. “I’m like his crazy aunt that they let out at commencements.”
In her speech, which was carried live on CNN.com and Oprah.com as well as on Duke’s website, Winfrey shared stories about interviewing celebrities as diverse as Hugh Jackman and Nelson Mandela, as well as ordinary people who she said often inspired her even more. She returned repeatedly to her theme that “one of the best ways to enhance your own life is to enhance somebody else’s.”
She also emphasized the need to make wise choices daily, saying, “Each of us has to stand in our own shoes. Will you stand in them in humility and compassion and courage? Every day will give you a chance to make that choice.”
Everyone gets a school! You get a school! You get a school!
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