The Vice President of the United States stepped forward after the withdrawal of Joe Biden of the electoral campaign and became the current president’s replacement in the fight against Donald Trump for the White House. With an extensive professional resume (lawyer, prosecutor and number two to the octogenarian leader) and a personal life without a shadow of scandal (married and stepmother to two teenagers who adore her) she seemed the ideal and ‘natural’ candidate for the Democrats. However, not everyone agrees and the polls point to another woman: Michelle Obama.
The Telegraphone of the most prestigious newspapers internationally, conducted a survey days before Biden’s resignation in which it asked more than 66,000 people about the president’s retirement and his possible replacement. The results were overwhelming: 63% of participants believed that the former First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 was the best option to beat Donald Trump at the polls. They were not the only ones: the surveys carried out by Reuters e Ipsos They predicted that Barack Obama’s wife would beat the Republican candidate by 10 points, and that no other Democratic candidate could beat the tycoon. Michelle presented herself as the ideal candidate because of her energy, honesty and good sense: “I admire her for her intelligence and her values,” said one of the respondents. “She has a relative youth on her side and could begin to heal the wounds of a large segment of the American population, white or black,” they added.
Others, however, were concerned about her lack of experience if she were to lead the country: “The most reasonable choice is Kamala Harris. Why? Because she is technically number two and there would be widespread outrage among large sections of the Democratic Party if she were pushed aside. The problem is that Kamala Harris is desperate, unpopular and has no discernible talent other than producing meaningless word salads. What makes up for all that is that she is a black woman,” said one. “While she is undoubtedly an intelligent woman, Michelle Obama has, to my knowledge, no experience in governing even at the local or state level in the United States, so she does not seem like a sensible choice.”
So, the more conservatives warned: “Unless they disenfranchise the millions of Democratic voters who nominated Biden, they must back Kamala Harris. Otherwise, all the money raised would have to be returned to donors and they would have to start from scratch. Democrats must follow their own rules or risk alienating many of their base.”
Obama doesn’t want to be president… yet
The former First Lady’s name as a replacement for Joe Biden was already mentioned last March. At that time, Michelle’s communications team was quick to deny the possibility of seeing her return to the White House, this time as president: “She will not run for election.” At least, for now.
Barack Obama’s wife did a fantastic job as First Lady during her husband’s two terms in office, from 2009 to 2017. Named the most powerful woman in the world by the magazine Forbesbecame an example and an inspiration for thousands of women around the world. A passionate feminist activist, she led global campaigns for gender equality, education and schooling for children (‘Let the girls learn’) or healthy eating (‘Let’s move’), which she shared with Doña Letizia, when the King and Queen of Spain visited the White House and the two women walked through Michelle’s vegetable garden in high heels. It is inevitable (and wonderful) to imagine a future visit by our monarchs to Washington in which the tables were turned: Barack became ‘first gentleman’ playing host to Letizia among the lettuces while Michelle and Felipe privately discussed international politics.
Born in Chicago, she studied Sociology and African American Studies at Princeton University. After graduating from Harvard Law School, in 1988 she began working for the law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met Barack Obama. They married in 1992 and are the parents of two daughters: Malia and Sasha. Before arriving at the White House as First Lady, she worked at the Chicago City Hall and also as a university dean. In 2020, she published her memoirs (one of the most widely read autobiographies in history) and premiered Becoming on Netflix, a documentary film that chronicles Michelle’s solidarity encounters during her book launch tour and which featured the participation of her two daughters.
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