This US election, where the bloody hell is Oprah?

After the third US presidential debate today, the results were pretty clear.

This entire thing is a circus. Not the fun kind. The scary-creepy-clown-tormented-animals-and-no-safety-harnesses-on-the-tightrope kind. With one idiot jester.

“Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” – Trump. #debatenight #debates #debate pic.twitter.com/UudXCjJLT5

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 20, 2016

Social media almost blew the light on my iPhone, it was alight with so much talk. Twitter estimated over 34,000 Tweets per second.

This #debatenight is so enraging. She’s an adult forced to argue with a talking bucket in a fright wig.

— Van Badham (@vanbadham) October 20, 2016

Since the campaign began, we’ve seen scores of celebrities put their hat in the ring and endorse Clinton, to fight alongside her against The Donald. George Clooney, Katy Perry, Connie Britton, Sigourney Weaver have all said: “I’m with her”.

But the one question we’re all asking is: Where the bloody hell is Oprah?

This is a woman whose used to hold the United States by the goolies.

Books would live and die by her endorsement. She was dubbed the “Queen of All Media”, she tested higher for credibility than the President,  and was widely regarded as one off the most influential people in the world.

Still now, she a combined following of 58.8 million social media followers, more than double the population of Australia.

And where is she during this election, during the defining moments of her nation?

Silent.

Nowhere.

She’s gone to the dogs.

Just today, more famous women such a Meryl Streep and Rose McGowann went public in a powerful new video denouncing Trump:

Watch the clip, "It's Not OK":

Still, no Oprah.

Fun fact: in 2007, in the lead-up to the US election, Barack Obama was considered a massive outsider in the race for even the nomination for President. So, it was Hillary Clinton vs Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. They had to choose between their first female candidate for President, and their first black candidate for President.

Enter, Oprah.

She announced she would campaign for him. Encouraged people to vote for him.

The effect was, obviously, enormous. She rallied thousands of supporters to volunteer their time on the campaign trail, ran fundraising events for him that scooped up tens of million of dollars for his campaign. Her endorsement, it was reported by economists who studied the effect, was worth at least a million votes. It decided his nomination. It, arguably, decided the election.

At the time, she told Larry King she had nothing against Hillary, of course. Not at all.

Well, I have great respect for Hillary Clinton. I – I think I've said this before and it's true. Because I am for Barack does not mean I am against Hillary or anybody else. So the fact that I would endorse Barack Obama and the fact that I would support Barack Obama, I have not one negative thing to say about Hillary Clinton.

Seven years on, she may not have anything negative to say about Hillary, but plenty do. And despite the idiocy of his campaign, the gob-smacking stupidity and arrogance of Donald Trump, the threat of him becoming President looms large.

As Mia Freedman said on the Mamamia Out Loud podcast, it's as if Trump has unlocked a dangerous side of the psyche in the American people.  By being racist, sexist, anti-immigration, anti-woman, and pro-gun, by positioning himself as a non-politician - as if that's a good thing - has ignited a sense of anarchy in the US.

What does anger and anarchy need? A calm voice. A reasoned voice. Oprah's voice.

Instead, she's tweeting about the shows on her network and talking up her faith in her #SuperSoulSundays.

.@carllentzNYC thank you for your beautiful gift of the Message today on #SuperSoulSunday pic.twitter.com/T1Z695oCWA

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) October 16, 2016

OPRAH, please.

We are in a SuperTrumpShitfight and could use a little hat-tip to Hillary about now.

Do we need to invoke The Secret and ask her?

Do we need to remind her that Hillary's campaign has more African-American women working on it than any other presidential campaign in history. Thirty-eight, in fact, are stationed at Hillary headquarters.

We know she can do it. She's done it before.... kind of. In July, way back before Hillary was even sured up as the Democratic nominee, she gave Hills a nod and a wink.

On the red carpet, Nancy O'Dell from Entertainment Tonight asked her what she thought about the prospect of a female President.

"I really believe that is going to happen. It's about time that we make that decision," Winfrey said. "Regardless of your politics, it’s a seminal moment for women. What this says is, there is no ceiling, that ceiling just went boom."

That was three months ago.

On a day where Trump got up at 3am to call a woman "disgusting" and claim she has a sex tape.

A photo posted by Mia Freedman (@miafreedman) on Sep 30, 2016 at 4:45pm PDT

Since then, she's thrown a few breadcrumbs out. Such as this reply to a tweet, one day after the second presidential debate:

@CharlesMBlow Reality Tv you couldn't even get away with.#debates

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) October 10, 2016

And some  #gratitude, a day after the first debate.

"Just listen to what you heard" best advice of the night for our nation. Thank you @HillaryClinton #debatenight

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) September 27, 2016

But in this third and final debate, with less than 20 days to go, where is she?

Perhaps she's in a very awkward situation. Trump has been on her show as a guest before, and he joked with Good Morning America that he would make her his VP, mentioning their friendship:

“I’d love to have Oprah. I think we’d win easily, actually.”

“She’s great, she’s talented, she’s a friend of mine. She’s a good person. I’ve been on her show.”

I guess if Oprah is living her "truest self"" then maybe this time around, silence is golden.

Do you care about celebrity endorsements of politicians? 

Listen to the whole of the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud, here: