Former first lady Michelle Obama announced that “there’s zero chance” she will enter the 2020 presidential race.
“There are so many ways to improve this country and build a better world, and I keep doing plenty of them, from working with young people to helping families lead healthier lives,” Obama added in an interview for The National. “But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me.”
Michelle Obama to the rescue?
After having now watched two lackluster rounds of the Democratic primary debates, many Democratic voters — including a number of prominent liberal pundits — have come to the unsettling conclusion that none of the declared candidates seem to have what it will take to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020
The candidates’ shift toward the far-left on a number of important issues has prompted even some liberal pundits to caution the Democratic Party against abandoning the moderate center.
It has also spurred an increasingly desperate search for an as-yet-unannounced candidate who could fill the wide-open centrist lane and, the Democrats hope, deny President Trump a second term in the White House.
Some, including leftist filmmaker Michael Moore, see Michelle Obama as the perfect fit. After watching the debates, Moore declared that only one “candidate” could beat Trump, “and her last name rhymes with Obama.”
“She would beat [Trump] in the debates, he wouldn’t be able to bully her, he wouldn’t be able to nickname her,” Moore said. But such a presumption is putting the cart before the horse, considering her stated disinterest in ever running for president.
She’s likely not the moderate the Democratic Party needs
While the former first lady remains enormously popular among Democrats — and even among some on the right — that would likely change if she ever threw her hat into the ring.
On top of that, whether Michelle Obama would even run as a moderate is debatable. Obama has given plenty of hints that she espouses the same radical leftism that the other candidates have already embraced.
To be sure, former President Barack Obama would likely be considered a moderate centrist in today’s far-left-leaning Democratic Party, and as a number of candidates proved in the most recent debate, they aren’t afraid to take shots at him now for his failures — in their eyes — to tack far enough left.
Now consider that Michelle always seemed to be a bit further toward the left than Barack, and the assumption that she would somehow be the unstoppable moderate candidate who could unite the center and left against Trump and the right starts looking like little more than wishful thinking.
Obama won’t save Democrats from Trump
Of course, as was seen in the 2016 election cycle with Trump, anything can happen. One would be wise to expect the unexpected. But those who hope the former first lady will swoop in and save them from another four years of Trump should prepare to be disappointed.
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