Cindy Adams, the 93-year-old gossip columnist for the New York Post, shocked her audience with a teaser piece on Jan 17: Don't be shocked if Michelle Obama sneaks her way into the 2024 race.
Ms. Adams may have a point about the former First Lady Michelle Obama attempting to dislodge President Biden from his perch as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party in 2024.
We smelled the possibility months ago and even conducted an I&I/TIPP poll in early January asking, "If President Biden decides not to run in 2024, who would be your top choice for the Democratic candidate?"
Kamala Harris came in first at 20%, followed by Michelle Obama at 14%, convincingly edging out Hillary Clinton, who came in at just 10%. Michelle beat Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom (the most-talked-about potential Biden replacement), Mayor Pete, and the two star senators from the 2020 campaign - Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.
Kamala Harris's first-spot finish in our poll is understandable. Though her approval ratings are terrible, she still has significant name recognition as she visits friendly media outlets and guffaws her way out of tough questions.
But Michelle Obama coming in second in our poll? Here's a former First Lady who has been out of the White House for over seven years. She has rarely been seen in public, unlike Hillary Clinton, who launched her Senate career to take over Daniel Patrick Moynihan's New York seat while she was still in the White House. [As a former First Lady, Clinton was elected to the Senate twice, almost beat Obama in the 2008 nomination race, then became Obama's first Secretary of State, and followed that up by becoming the 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee before losing to Trump].
A good question for voters is: What exactly has Michelle Obama achieved that makes her worthy of the highest office in the land and a promotion to the position as leader of the free world?
Her early Wikipedia biography is impressive but by no means stellar. Michelle Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Michelle subsequently worked in nonprofits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago. Later, she served as vice president for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Her only claim to fame is that she served as First Lady. For eight years, she remained the closest friend and confidante to America's first-ever Black president. But other former First Ladies - Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush - did the same for their husbands too, and like Michelle, they did not aspire to high office. What makes Michelle different?
Well, in the incredibly racially-sensitive echo chamber that the modern Democratic Party thrives, identity politics drives everything. Kamala Harris was chosen because she was Black, although Harris brilliantly decided to identify herself as Black and not Asian-American (her mother was Hindu Brahmin and cared for her; Harris's father, Jamaican, is estranged from Kamala to this day). Mayor Pete won plaudits because he is openly gay. The White House Press Secretary is Black, female, and a lesbian. The top military leaders of the nation are Black. Biden's first Supreme Court pick was Black.
In the Democratic Party, Michelle Obama is the Uber-Black personality, next only to former President Barack Obama (constitutionally barred from running for a third term), who is the only ex-president in American history to have bought a home in the Georgetown suburbs of Washington and continues to live there when not at his Martha's Vineyard residence. Barack is rumored to be the thinker/strategist extraordinaire for Biden's failed policies and presidency. The talk inside the Beltway is that Obama is already in his third term, so would a victorious Michelle give Barack a fourth term?
When Michelle addresses a gathering, oohs and aahs follow her every moment she is in the room. Fawning all over her are Black women and college-educated white elite women who are atoning for their sin for being born white and living a privileged life.
But how much purchase does Michelle have with Black men who have now moved in droves to Trump? Biden took 92% of the Black male vote in 2020. Current polls say that Biden's support among Black males is around 80%. Democrats who may salivate at having Michelle on the ticket are hoping that she will not only stem this flight but bring them all home.
We predict that the Black male return will not happen. On the ground, Black men are longing for the period of glory days under Trump. Bidenflation, at 16.7%, is ripping apart lower-income Black families. With mortgage rates stuck at 7%, families are finding it extraordinarily expensive to buy their first homes. Unbridled immigration is cutting into jobs in construction and other service jobs that have traditionally been the mainstays of Black male employment. Immigration is also causing a deterioration of the quality of life in America's inner cities, where most Blacks live.
We don't know if Michelle is willing to get into the mud of a presidential race. Or what she stands for, other than that she is aligned with her husband's liberal positions. In a general election campaign, if Michelle were to stake out more moderate policy positions to appeal to Independents, that would eviscerate her support on the Left. If she continues Biden's Leftist policies, she will be doomed on the right by Trump's ‘America First’ express, which is gaining speed as it hurtles down the primary states.
We feel that even Michelle Obama won’t be able to stop this train.
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