The moment has inspired a mini “Oprah 2020” boomlet of speculation in political media. Even NBC saluted Ms. Winfrey with a tweet, since deleted: “Nothing but respect for OUR future president.” (You’d think the home of “The Apprentice” might want to recuse itself from the future-president business by now.)

After a year with a reality-TV ratings junkie in symbiosis with “Fox & Friends,” there are many reasons to wonder about a turn to another television star. Is politics becoming permanently celebritized? Do we want the presidency to become the ultimate Cecil B. DeMille Award?

But to argue that Ms. Winfrey should run for president — or shouldn’t — simply because she’s a celebrity oversimplifies the issue. Most celebrities would make terrible candidates. (No offense, Kid Rock.) The real consideration here is why Ms. Winfrey is a celebrity, and all those qualifications were on display in that speech.

It’s a master’s stage performance. It builds from kitchen confession to mountaintop thunder. It shifts perspective cinematically — close in on young Ms. Winfrey sitting on the linoleum floor, pull back to a panorama of America. It uses preacherly rhythms and even cliffhangers (“a young worker by the name of … Rosa Parks”).

But above all, it’s a story. And it’s a story about stories. It moves from the personal (young Ms. Winfrey watching Sidney Poitier win an Oscar) to the communal (women in Hollywood, and women working on farms and even “some pretty phenomenal men”). It links “your truth” and “absolute truth.” It tells the audience: I have my struggle, and I know you have yours, and that connects us all in the sweep of a global struggle.