CODEL OBAMA AND OPRAH

Back at the Table Bay Hotel, where we are staying in Cape Town, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama in the workout room in the late afternoon.

He was exercising with weights, wearing a t-shirt and running pants. Though I now walk around armed with a still camera and video recordera newly spawned converged journalistObama said he preferred I not shoot him working out.

In all the new places CODEL OBAMA will be in the next few daysespecially Kenya and refugee camps in Chadit seemed arguing about photos and Obamas zone of privacy could be put off for later.

I pondered all this as I did some pushups.

By the way…Obama told one on himself on Monday.

He said Oprah Winfrew offered him a ride on her plane to Africa.

She was on her was to Jo-burg to open her girls school.

“She said, “you want to hitch a ride?”

“Said nope. we don’t fly on private corporate. We would have had to reimbuse her….Couldn’t afford that.”

Last year, after taking 23 subsidized rides on corporate jets, Obama said he would discontinue the practice and have his campaign fund reimburse companies if he took their planes.

FYI…for what it is worth…Obama flew first class with two staffers on KLM to Cape Town.

Obama said he was booked on Oprah timed to when his new book comes out, delayed for a few weeks but still supposed to be in October.