Todd Owyoung / NBC
In case Joe Biden drops out of the presidential race at the finish line, the Democrats have no other options but to find a replacement for the «battery-powered grandpa», since the batteries have died.
One of the working and quite possible scenarios in such a force majeure is the nomination of a reserve player — Michelle Obama, who has already been the first lady and a tenant in the White House during the presidency of her husband Barack Obama.
As early as March, NBC reported on its website that «Democrats anxiously awaiting November say they want to see Michelle Obama take a more active role in the campaign. Some are even whispering about the possibility that she could replace a politically weakened candidate in the 2024 election this summer».
The same post quoted her spokesman and PR manager, Crystal Carson, as saying that
«Michelle Obama has said repeatedly and over the years that she will not run for president».
Her words that she wholeheartedly «supports the re-election campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris» were cited as a cogent argument, which is in keeping with the Democrats’ norms of intraparty discipline.
One might believe that the jungle of big politics, especially when one speaks there with a heavy American accent, cannot be an object of admiration. In her memoirs (discussed below), Michelle Obama admits that as first lady, she «at times felt bullied, stereotyped and misunderstood — especially during her husband’s 2008 campaign».
However, the German magazine Der Spiegel refers to its sources inside the U.S. Democratic Party, who almost confidently predict that in August at the national convention Joe Biden will announce his «renunciation» in favor of Michelle Obama.
In this context, they recalled the interview of the wife of the current U.S. President Jill Biden in the summer of 2020 at the peak of that election marathon. CNN broadcaster Alisyn Camerota then asked whether Michelle Obama was not considered as the number two candidate, in other words, whether she was considered for the role of a potential vice-president. Jill Biden laughed:
«You know, I would love it if Michelle would go for it. But … I think she’s fed up with politics… She’s so good at everything she does. It would be … that would be great».
During this year’s primaries, Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who withdrew from the race, mentioned Michelle Obama 20 times as a very likely successor to Joe Biden in that track. Carol Reynoso, a Democrat who ran in the Michigan primary, polemicized with him — she boldly responded to a question about who she would prefer to replace Joe Biden:
«Michelle Obama would be a phenomenal candidate. But she’s too smart to go for it».
Usually, a selection of basic facts about the personality of the wife of the non-reigning but ruling Barack Obama points to such symbolic details. Her personal fortune as of 2021 was estimated at $70 million. For the sake of promoting healthy eating, she planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House. As First Lady, she supported American designers and was considered a «style icon».
In the meantime, we should keep in mind that Michelle Obama, according to Carol Reynoso, is smart, and at the same time that her husband still has a whole staff of experienced political technologists at his disposal, and it is not by chance that her statement appeared in early January, as reported by USA Today, that she is «terrified» of the possible results of the presidential race in 2024. Read — of Trump’s likely return to power. And that fear keeps her up at night.
In an interview that same month, Michelle Obama fired a heavy propaganda shell at Trump:
«It’s childish, and we see childish leadership right in front of us — what it looks like and what it feels like when someone is just primitive and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position».
The focused hatred against Trump has a backstory. In 2018, Michelle Obama’s memoir titled «Becoming» was released, a 426-page story about the rise to power of a girl who lived in a cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago. This memoir, according to the Washington Post, the Democrats’ megaphone mouthpiece,
«is not a Washington reading full of gossip and political score-settling, though it does reveal her deep contempt for Trump, who she believes jeopardized her family’s safety with his vehement promotion of a conspiracy theory about a fake birth certificate».
It refers to Trump’s repeated accusations that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, which, under American law, automatically disqualified him from running for president. The proof was a birth certificate published by Malik Obama, Barack’s half-brother, which says: Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Hospital in Mombasa, a British protectorate in Kenya. Consequently, there is no way he could have been an American by birth.
In her memoirs, Michelle Obama called the accusations «insane and mean-spirited, with bigotry and xenophobia barely concealed behind them». By her logic, it was intended to «stir up the crazies» that posed a threat to her daughters’ lives. And further:
«What if someone with an unstable psyche had loaded a gun and gone to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump has jeopardized my family’s safety with his loud and reckless hints. And that is something I will never forgive him for».
The last phrase means that the account of the personal vendetta is not settled. Therefore, the choice in favor of Michelle Obama for the party of the donkey is predetermined by at least three concrete factors.
First, the ratings of the charismatic but senile commander-in-chief continue to sag. The other day, Joe Biden, that elder statesman, called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a «South Korean dictator». No one can guarantee that in the final six-month stretch of the campaign, his brain neural networks will not go into a stupor and surprise voters.
Second, the Democrats’ bench is short. Moreover, the most far-sighted, even ambitious politicians do not seem to be in a hurry to line up to inherit the Everest of systemic crises from Joe Biden. There’s the debt load, which increases by about $1 trillion every 100 days; there’s the uncontrollable invasion of illegal migrants from Mexico; there’s the flood of catastrophes caused by metal fatigue and the general deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure; there’s the degradation of public morality; and so on.
Thirdly and finally: Michelle Obama fully meets the most important criterion of the Democrats, who buried the idea of meritocracy — nomination to power only of those worthy by the combination of personal qualities and merits. This 60-year-old corpulent and well-knit lady is an African-American woman whose distant ancestors farmed cotton fields as slaves and/or served as governesses for wealthy white families. She fits the racial profile already. And her coming to the forefront means that she is an organic replacement for the same Kamala Harris.
Michelle Obama’s personal score with Donald Trump is no less significant in the eyes of neoliberals.
What conclusions are drawn from a cursory review of the scenario of Joe Biden’s replacement? From the Democratic camp there can be at least daily refutations of rumors that Michelle Obama is being prepared behind the scenes as a «backup player». This in no way debunks the logic indicating that such a move is a near-perfect solution to keep the Democrats in the status of the ruling party. Everyone understands that the presiding lady will serve as a screen or a PR showcase, while the real power will belong, as it has for all the years of Sleepy Joe’s rule, to her husband.
In fact, Michelle will guarantee a fourth consecutive term for Barack Obama, read — for the company of hard-core Democratic officials running on behalf of the neo-globalists.