According to the Drudge Report, there’s trouble brewing in Oprah’s world, and it all has to do with the Alaska governor and her meteroic rise to fame:

Oprah Winfrey may have introduced Democrat Barack Obama to the women of America—but the talkshow queen is not rushing to embrace the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket!

... “Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on,“ an insider explains. “Oprah’s website is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama.“

Drudge adds that one TV exec is warning Winfrey that any “Palin ban could ignite a dramatic backlash!“

In those eloquent words of the teen poets of the 1980s ... DUH!!

I was talking with some folks yesterday about Palin’s debut Wednesday night, and one was of the opinion that, rather than attack Palin himself and run the risk of being perceived as being sexist, Obama will allow women to take the lead on attacking her.

Could Oprah be leading the way?

Also, a new Survey USA poll out this morning shows us why so many women are clamoring for Oprah to host Palin: Fully 60 percent of those who saw her Wednesday night speech gave it an ‘A.‘ But more importantly is Palin’s apparent appeal to independents:

24 hours ago, independent voters nationwide were split on whether Palin was an asset or a liability to McCain’s campaign. Today, by a 2:1 margin, independents say Palin is an asset. Overnight, the percentage calling the Alaska governor an asset to the campaign climbed 13 points; the percentage calling her a liability fell 17 points.

The numbers are similar among moderates, who 24 hours ago viewed Palin as a liability by an 11 point margin; today, Palin is seen as an asset by an 18 point margin.

That last point is interesting given that the Democrats are portraying her, as Paul Begala did, as “the new superstar of the religious right.“

Apparently, independents and moderates don’t see things Begala’s way.

One final note on that survey: Check out the number of independents who say they believe the media is “rooting for Barack Obama.“

It’s more than half.

And how many people did see Palin’s speech, anyway?

Here’s a hint: Her audience was 55 percent larger than Joe Biden’s a week earlier and only 1.2 million viewers fewer than watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last week—and that audience had set a new record for a convention speech.

But her audience might have even eclipsed Obama’s.

Read more here.

One more note on those ratings: MSNBC’s experiment into hyperpartisan coverage? Yeah, that isn’t going so well:

TV VIEWERS FOR PALIN, 10 PM ET

FOXNEWS 9,038,000
NBC 7,720,000
CNN 6,114,000
ABC 5,050,000
CBS 4,630,000
MSNBC 3,277,000