Talk of a Michelle Obama run in 2020 is rising after Tucker Carlson endorsed the theory.
Carlson told his viewers not to “bet against” the former first lady making a late entry into the Democratic primary, saying that she’s “one of the only people who could unite the party’s warring factions.” The Fox host pointed to Ms. Obama’s immense popularity and the fact that her husband has not endorsed the current frontrunner, Joe Biden.
Michelle Obama 2020 speculation on the rise
The basis of the theory is pretty simple: with a few months to go before the primaries start, the current field of candidates is failing to inspire confidence that any of them can beat Donald Trump, and Barack Obama still hasn’t endorsed his former vice president. Biden is tanking in Iowa and said to lack the favor of Michelle’s husband, who thinks that Biden lacks a “bond” with voters.
“If Obama had endorsed Joe Biden, the race would be over,” Carlson said. “Obama hasn’t endorsed Joe Biden because he doesn’t want to endorse Joe Biden. Why? Maybe he’s got other plans.”
While Michelle Obama has denied having presidential ambitions, the former first lady has converted her Oprah-like popularity into eye-popping book sales and lucrative speaking engagements since leaving the White House. She just released a new book which would require her to speak to crowds, Carlson noted, and the book tour for her husband’s memoir is also scheduled right in the middle of primary season – right when voters would be searching for their champion to take on Trump.
“In other words, at exactly the moment when Democrats will be thinking deeply about how to beat Donald Trump, America will be talking about the Obamas.”
Polls favor Obama, despite her denials
Carlson also pointed to the fact that David Axelrod, a close Obama ally, has been attacking Biden. Moreover, Ms. Obama is immensely popular – the most admired woman in the world, according to one poll – and, like her husband, not perceived as particularly ideological, an asset in a party consumed by woke-ness.
“The Democratic Party is ripping itself apart over race and gender and class,” Carlson said. “Michelle Obama, let’s be honest, is one of the only people who could unite the party’s warring factions.”
Obama is likely waiting for the plebeians to finish sucker-punching each other before she makes her play to “save” her party at the convention, according to another analysis at the Legal Insurrection blog.
The growing rift between Mr. Obama and a more radical Democratic party – exposed in the candidates’ attacks on Mr. Obama’s legacy at the debates, and his own comments rebuking the radical left – further underscore the possibility that Mr. Obama sees his wife as the best candidate to rescue the party from its fractious, weakened state.
The latest entries into the race, billionaire Michael Bloomberg and has-been Deval Patrick, hardly seem calculated to change the party’s fortunes. Michelle Obama would rise to the top in New Hampshire if she jumped in now, according to a recent poll, and she would “clear the field” with support of 50 percent of Democratic primary voters according to a Fox poll.
If this all sounds fanciful, Carlson played a video of Barack Obama denying any presidential ambitions in 2006, just two years before he won the presidency. And of course, nobody thought Donald Trump would ever be president either. Stranger things have happened.
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