Did you really think we were going anywhere else this morning? Anywhere else but Oprahlooza? Maybe if we didn’t have roving photojournalist Bill Stetson cunningly pre-positioned across the state line at the Double O Rally in Manchester last night. But, of course, we did.

The news coverage of the three-state tour has been just shy of roadblock. But journalists are a skeptical lot, particularly when it comes to anyone else’s ability to impact a Presidential race.

So most outlets dutifully detailed the intensity and scope of the gatherings, and then moved into serious chin-pulling mode: “Whether Winfrey’s popularity will translate into votes for Obama in the state’s Jan. 26 primary is an open question.”

Really? Well, thank you very much, Los Angeles Times. Because if you and other media outlets hadn’t reminded us time and again, VDB would have simply assumed that the race was over as of Friday.

Really, though, shouldn’t that caveat be appended to every report of everything that happens on the campaign trail? No one knows, after all, what makes people do what they do in those dark little booths, all by themselves.

But we do know that enthusiasm helps. And 30,000 in South Carolina, 8,500 in Manchester — those numbers can’t be faked. That’s serious excitement, serious momentum. And many of those people will now go out and pass the experience on to their friends.

So when the meme gets set on its head middle of this week — when rival campaigns begin to argue that Oprah’s appearances were somehow a net loss for Obama — you’ll see it coming.

And you’ll know that the Obama campaign delivered this weekend on the promise of last summer, when their candidate drew 10,000 people in Oakland: they’ve now tripled that personal best.

Which bodes well, weeks out from Iowa, no matter what anyone says.

Although, of course, whether Ms. Winfrey’s media popularity will translate into votes [VDB puffs meerschaum pipe, pulls chin meditatively] remains to be seen.

A few unskeptical Vermonters on hand for the Double O in Manchester, from left to right: Rebecca Kazal of Hanover, Jane and Bill Stetson, and Sarah Muyskens of Burlington. And thanks, as always, to Bill for these fine photos.