Until her 15th year on air, Oprah Winfrey refused to interview politicians. "I've stayed away from politicians really for one main reason: I never felt I could have a real honest conversation with them," she said. But that all changed in 2000 when Winfrey interviewed both Al Gore and George W. Bush as the two squared off in a close race for the White House. "I thought, 'Well, OK, 15 years. I need to try to penetrate that wall," she said.
Now, as the queen of daytime TV wraps her final shows, we take a look at the political walls she's broken and the souls she's bared.
![<p>Before releasing her memoir, <em>Going Rogue</em>, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appeared on the Oprah show on November 16, 2009. She revealed what she said was the one skeleton left in her closet, “The one skeleton that I have to confess to is I did [get] a D 22 years ago in a college course.”</p> - Bill Pugliano/Getty Images](http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=8350&format=gallery)
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