After the Hur report was released, there was renewed speculation about the possibility of replacing Biden on the ticket with Michelle Obama. You may remember her; she's only famous because her husband occupied the White House for eight excruciating years.
I’ve never taken much stock in theories that Michelle Obama would replace Joe Biden on the ticket, and despite her propensity to lie, her public statements indicating that she has no desire to be president have seemed genuine.
“There’s zero chance,” Michelle Obama said back in 2019. “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. But sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office will never be one of them. It’s just not for me.”
Filmmaker Joel Gilbert, who produced a documentary called "Michelle Obama 2024," has never believed her claims that she hates politics and is convinced that she will make her way back to the White House.
"The 'Michelle hates politics' line has been used to hide Michelle’s intense lifelong political activity,” Gilbert told PJ Media last year. "Michelle is all politics all the time and has been since she was a child, tagging along with her precinct captain father, who worked for the Democrat Party machine in Chicago."
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Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said there were signs that she might run. Last year, he pointed to Susan Rice's departure from the White House the day before Biden announced his reelection campaign as a potential sign that she would run.
“Republicans had better pay significant attention” to Michelle Obama, Gingrich warned.
But what could she possibly run on? Her tenure as First Lady was, on the whole, unremarkable. Her biggest accomplishment was the school lunch program that critics widely panned, and she was notorious for taking lavish trips with an excessively large entourage. Of course, one could argue that her husband was equally green when he was elected president, so Democrat voters aren't particularly concerned about experience or competence.
Still, the general belief from the left — and some on the right — was that if Michelle Obama ran for president, she'd crush Donald Trump. Except she wouldn't.
Because the theory of a plot to replace Joe Biden with Michelle Obama won't die, the Daily Mail teamed up with J.L. Partners to conduct a poll to see just how well Michelle Obama would perform in a match-up with Donald Trump.
According to the survey of 1,000 likely voters, she'd do no better than Joe Biden. Against Joe Biden, Donald Trump wins 46% to 43%. Against Michelle Obama, Donald Trump wins again, 47% to 44%.
"Some have been touting an emergency parachute for Biden for some time: draft Michelle Obama," pollster James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners, told the Daily Mail. "But it turns out voters are no more keen to vote for Michelle over Trump than they are for Biden, with Trump beating her overall and even with Independents."
Johnson added, "It was never very realistic, but this poll puts paid to the idea she can be any kind of saving force for the Democrats."
So Biden is down in the polls, and he's not getting any younger, but even the Democrats' best hope of a replacement to swoop in and stop Trump is in no better position to do so than he is.
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