David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, has poured scorn over speculation that former First Lady Michelle Obama could run for the presidency.
In an appearance on CNN, Axelrod was asked about rumors that Michelle Obama could replace the declining Joe Biden on the ticket.
He responded by pointing out that she does not even particularly like politics:
Here’s what I know. Michelle Obama loves this country, she is a brilliant person and a brilliant communicator. But she was a conscript to politics, she was never interested in a political life, even when Barack Obama was a young politician. She really didn’t participate much in his campaigns. I was with him in his Senate campaign in 2004, I think she showed up twice in the whole campaign on election nights.
Axelrod added that the Obamas feel like they already gave a decade of their life to politics and they have no plans on throwing themselves back in the ring:
So she is not someone who likes politics, she doesn’t like the tone and tenor of politics and I would be floored if she would consent to that. They feel they gave 10 years of their life to this and I’m sure she feels as Barbara Bush did when she said there has to be someone other than the Bush’s and the Clinton’s who can be president of the United States.
My guess is that is her attitude. I always say I have more chance of dancing in the Bolshoi Ballet as next year than she would be president of the United States.
Despite Axelrod’s comments, which should be seen as highly credible given his close relationship with the Obama family, political figures on the right continue to insist that Michelle Obama will somehow be shipped in to replace Biden in the hope she will defeat Donald Trump.
Among them is Vivek Ramaswamy, often touted as a potential vice-presidential pick, who told Fox News this week that she provides the Democratic Party with a “convenient” alternative should they require it:
If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden.
And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election . . . it’s looking increasingly like it’s not going to be Biden as the nominee. And I think that it should not be shocking to see someone like Michelle Obama take the role of the nomination.
Also pushing this narrative is The New York Post‘s gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who reported this week that Michelle Obama had notified people close to her as far back as 2022 that she planned to run in this election cycle.
She wrote this week:
I broke the story Mrs. Obama might run for the highest office in the land. With outlets all repeating my story, the Obamas have not denied it.
While high-level DC people deny Michelle’s a maybe candidate, several firsthand sources whom she met in 2022 say I am right.
Obama, who came into the White House poor and left rich, has not refuted it.
Ultimately, nobody knows what will happen in the 2024 presidential election or, given their respective issues, whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump will even be on the ticket come election day.
Yet, given Axelrod’s credibility and that the Democratic primary season is already well underway, it is probably best to take all the Michelle Obama rumors with a heavy pinch of salt.
