As Oprah goes, so does the rest of America. Whether it is the latest book or diet, she can take it to the top of the charts. Everyone knows that. Not that her show, which airs across 140 countries, hasn?t been forced to make a retraction every now and then. In a classic case, she had to take a very public step-back from James Frey?s memoir, which she had heavily touted but which turned out to be fabricated. But in 22 years of growing into the Queen of All Media, as Time magazine titled her, she has never taken sides in the presidential race. Well, this time around, she felt inspired to step out of her pew, messianically proclaiming: America, I do believe he?s the one.

This was not without cost. Her favourable ratings have plunged in the last year, with her unfavourable ratings climbing to 1 in 3 for the first time ever. On the other hand, by some estimates, her endorsement pulled in a million additional votes and more than 10,000 volunteers for Obama during the brutal primaries season. With their personalities naturally gravitating towards similar themes ? hope, optimism, individual responsibility, the two have together produced a potent O2 effect.

But it?s not Oprah alone who went on an unprecedented endorsement route. This Friday, the Editor & Publisher journal tallied up daily newspaper positions to find that the Obama-Biden ticket had a 287 to 159 lead over the Republicans. Accentuating this almost 2-1 margin, with the circulation of Obama-backing papers outstripping that of those backing John McCain by nearly 61%, was the fact that over 50 papers had switched to the Democrats since 2004. These shape-shifters included the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times that had never endorsed a Democratic nominee in their respective 161 and 127 years histories.

An endorsement by Oprah Winfrey may hold more sway than a local broadsheet, but newspaper endorsements do matter. A US National Bureau of Economic Research paper found that 1) voters were more likely to support the candidate explicitly recommended by their newspaper and 2) the degree of influence effected by an endorsement goes up in proportion to its unexpectedness. To illustrate, because the New York Times is expected to endorse the Democratic nominee with 90% probability, its Obama endorsement was likely less influential than that the Chicago Tribune?s.

People who crossed the party line have in fact emerged as winners across the media terrain, some with a comprehensive Republican rebuttal and others with mini moments of ?seeing the light.? To name one example on the latter front, when Joe the plumber, aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, climbed aboard the McCain campaign and opined support for the view that ?a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel,? Fox anchor Shepard Smith frustratedly defied his channel?s conservative mandate, saying: ?I just want to make this 100% perfectly clear ? Barack Obama has said repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the US, no matter what happens once he becomes President of the US. The rest of it ? man, it just gets frightening sometimes.?

As for broader swings, Colin Powell and Christopher Buckley?s stand out. But with some in the Republican establishment always having been suspicious of the former?s GOP loyalties, perhaps it was the latter?s switchover that came as a greater shock. As the son of the National Review?s founder, Buckley?s credentials couldn?t have been any redder. Yet he risked it all to blog, ?Sorry dad, I am voting for Obama.?

The biggest TV bumps this season also came courtesy the electoral race. A specifically satirical winner was of course NBC?s Saturday Night Live. As if it were not enough that Tina Fey was drawing in record crowds with her pitch perfect impersonation of Sarah Palin, when the latter good naturedly turned up to parody herself on the show, the audience mushroomed by 47%. Two weeks later, John McCain also made an appearance, playing off his rival?s astronomically expensive 30 minutes infomercial buying spree across the networks. He deadpanned: ?Would I rather be on three networks? Of course. But I?m a true maverick ? a Republican without money.? He also played up the Sad Grandpa pun to the hilt: ?C?mon, Obama?s gonna have plenty of chances to be president! It?s my turn! Vote for me! ?

November 4 was a good night for TV, with 71.5m viewers tuning in, around 50% as many as cast their votes. Technology was a big winner. Used much better this time around than in 2000, when a network infamously, prematurely and mistakenly announced Al Gore a winner against George W Bush, it offered large-screen magic-maps, with elaborately detailed interfaces that kept one accurately updated on projections, county after county, without fail! CNN of course took the cake with its three-dimensional holograms, which surrealy summoned up people like Will.i.am into their studio with a Star Wars affect. Where was the Yes We Can video frontman the day after the election? Debuting It’s a New Day on Oprah?s show.

In? connect

The Republican Party is sort of in tatters. Not only are president Bush?s approval ratings at a historical low, it has suffered electoral setbacks across most demographics this week. No wonder the party?s pundits have already begun speculating about which candidate could help turn it in an upward direction in 2012. Besides the obvious Sarah Palin, a name that keeps cropping up is that of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Whatever happens to this particular Indian American dream, here are others that came true this Tuesday:

1 Democrat Swati Dandekar (57) was elected to the Iowa Senate. In 2002, she was the first Indian-born American citizen to win a state legislature seat.

2 Democrat Jay Goyal (27), an engineer, was re-elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. In 2006, he had become the first Asian-American elected to serve in the Ohio Legislature.

3 Democrat Raj Goyle (33), a Harvard-trained lawyer, was re-elected to the Kansas House of Representatives. He is the first South Asian American elected in the history of the state and the first Democrat to ever win two consecutive elections in the district.

4 Republican Nikki Randhawa Haley (36) was re-elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. She is the chief financial officer of her family?s clothing company, Exotica International.