Michelle Obama: ‘Never Gonna Happen’

Democrats have spent the last two presidential cycles channeling Simon & Garfunkel, looking for a savior. Where have you gone, Michelle Obama / our party turns its lonely eyes to you …

As if eight years of shining Democrats on didn’t suffice, the former First Lady sang back over the weekend: It ain’t me, babe / No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe …

Or as Mrs. Obama put it more bluntly about attempts to recruit her as the new party leader — “Never gonna happen”:

During a recent appearance on Kylie Kelce’s “Not Gonna Lie” podcast, the former first lady addressed long-running speculation about her political future, calling the idea of a presidential campaign “unthinkable.” 

She said her decision is rooted not in politics, but in a desire to protect her family from the pressures that come with public office.

“When people ask me, would I ever run? The answer is no,” Obama said. “Not only am I not interested in politics in that way, but the thought of putting my girls back into that spotlight when they are just now establishing themselves … I think we’ve done enough.”

She added bluntly: “Question asked and answered—never gonna happen.”

By this time, the answer should have been obvious, no? The most obvious time for Mrs. Obama to run would have been in the 2020 election cycle. The Democrats had a fractious debate run-up in 2019, and the odds-on favorite for progressive demands for diversity — Kamala Harris — fell flat on her face. Bernie Sanders threatened to take the nomination, Joe Biden began stumbling out of the gate, and Mrs. Obama could have easily swept in and carried the nomination. Instead, Jim Clyburn rescued Biden in South Carolina, and the rest is (embarrassing) history.

And failing that, Mrs. Obama could have easily wrestled her way onto the ticket in July of last year. Just because Biden endorsed Harris to replace him didn’t mean the nomination was sewn up. The Obamas took a few days to endorse Harris, and the party was still debating whether a smoke-filled-back-room anointment of a known trainwreck was a good idea. If Mrs. Obama had even an ounce of ambition for the presidency, it would have been gift-wrapped for her — and she wouldn’t have had to do much campaigning, either. 

Now Democrats hope that they can convince the former First Lady, long rumored to resent the toll that the presidency took on her family, to spend the next three years slugging it out for party control with other ambitious Democrats? Come on, man.

Mrs. Obama made the remarks on the Not Gonna Lie podcast with host Kylie Kelce (the wife of retired Eagles star Jason Kelce) in an interview published four days ago. This picks up around the 25-minute mark, when Mrs. Obama explains the difficulty of the DC fishbowl on her children:

Nor should this surprise anyone who might have slept for the past nine years or so. Even as First Lady, Mrs. Obama made it very clear that she didn’t enjoy the time in the White House and especially the attention her daughters got as part of it. She stuck mainly to traditional First Lady functions such as charities and advocacy for softer policy positions, although her school-lunch changes got plenty of political blowback. She campaigned for her husband but notably didn’t do much campaigning for anyone else, starting when Barack’s term was ending in 2016. 

It was clear that Mrs. Obama didn’t want to be involved in electoral politics then, and it has become even more clear since then. Whenever speculation arose about her pulling a Deus ex machina rescue of Democrats, I advised skepticism by the truckload for that reason. And now, after she allowed perhaps the most golden opportunity ever presented to a potential presidential candidate to pass her by in July 2024, perhaps the question has truly been “asked and answered,” as Mrs. Obama tells Kylie Kelce.

And that means Democrats still are stuck without a leader, or even a clear path forward to finding one. But that’s not Michelle’s problem.