I heard it first from the security guard in my office building. We were chatting about the inauguration, when he grew animated. “What’s going to happen after this?” he abruptly asked me. “The Democrats don’t have anyone to come after Obama. They only have one person. You know who it is?” It astonished me to realize he meant the First Lady.
“If that happens, I’ll tell everyone I heard it here first,” I replied, taking his words as a measure of the fervid loyalty the First Family enjoys in some camps. Whether Mrs. Obama, who has never held public office and was a reluctant first lady, would ever contemplate a presidential run seems doubtful to me. She’s an entirely different sort than Hillary Clinton, who, since her school days, has been a political animal through and through.
Imagine my astonishment, then, when I ran across this image on a heavily visited website (The Obamacrat) that assumed the same thing: that a Michelle Obama candidacy would be viable in 2016. If nothing else, this incipient “draft MO” movement suggests how ready citizens of perhaps any nation are to place their trust in established political families, fueling a dynastic element that has been an unmistakeable and constant feature of American politics, as evident during the Federalist era as it is today.
Photograph of Mrs Obama
made from PBS Newshour coverage of Monday’s presidential inauguration.
RELATED:
What will Michelle Obama do with four more years? Yahoo.com
The trouble with MO, is that a lot of people might not like her MO.
WK
Proving once again that the smart and the funny can be one and the same–thank you, Bill!
Michelle could always run for U.S. Senator from Illinois in 2016, when Mark Kirk is up for reelection. I have no idea if she will — and a run for president seems very unlikely — but I have no doubt Michelle will do something interesting, challenging and fairly public once Barack is out of office.
The lives of the whole family will be interesting to watch.