Democrats seem to be engaging in a whole lot of gaslighting these days. If they'e not trying to convince the American people that their everyday experiences at the grocery store and the gas pump aren't real, they are insisting that President Joe Biden is a healthy, vibrant 81-year-old. It is a game they are apparently willing to keep playing right up until the 2024 presidential election. In the dark, smoke-filled back rooms of the Democrat National Committee, surely they see Joe Biden and know there had better be a contingency plan for the 2024 presidential ticket, you know, just in case. There has been much speculation that, should the Democrats need a Plan B, that would possibly be California Gov. Gavin Newsom. But were they quietly counting on the fact they might have a Plan C as well in former First Lady Michelle Obama?
🚨New: Michelle Obama has announced she will not be running for President in 2024. pic.twitter.com/sRhYxDV5Zn
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) March 5, 2024
Well, Democrats can kiss Plan C a fond farewell. On Tuesday, Michelle Obama's office issued a statement that may put any speculation that she was interested in a presidential run to rest. The statement read:
As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president. Mrs. Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign.
Michelle Obama has had a complicated relationship with Washington D.C. and the political scene in general. She made her own headlines during the 2008 presidential campaign by stating, "...for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” But she may have begun silencing early speculation about her 2024 plans when, in 2022, she told the BBC that she "detests" questions about whether she would run for president. In 2023, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, she seemed to squelch any such talk even further by saying, “Politics is hard. And the people who get into it … you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul.”
When Michelle Obama states she isn’t ’Running for President’ this simply means she’s shutting down months of Journalistic Vetting until she’s ’surprise installed’ in August. https://t.co/vEHNdF4Xem
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) March 5, 2024
So, at least for now, Michelle Obama says she is a no-go. Does it change the Democrat 2024 scenario, and if so, how? Gavin Newsom has stated over and over that he is not running. My colleague Nick Arama, back in January, covered Newsom's unending loyalty to Joe Biden in an interview with MSNBC, where he stated,
Who in their mind would want to run when you have someone of such esteem as our incumbent president of the United States with a record of accomplishments, and a man of character, a man of decency. I'm old school, Talk about loyalty. I'll go to the ends of the Earth for this guy, I really would.
Ironically, this statement came after Newsom's 2022 visit to the White House while Joe Biden was in the Middle East. With his jacket slung over his shoulder and sporting a fresh California tan, one could argue that he had the look of someone measuring the drapes. But Democrats have a potentially serious problem. What happens if Joe Biden becomes so impaired that it becomes obvious they have to replace him? Michelle Obama is a much harder "no" than Newsom. Newsom will continue to play the "no, I couldn't possibly" card until it is undeniable he is needed. He gets plugged in, but then what about Kamala Harris? Democrats know her poll numbers are worse than Joe Biden's. She would somehow have to be persuaded that stepping aside was for the good of the party, a pretty tall order. Because of Harris' dismal poll numbers, Michelle Obama was the Democrats' insurance policy for not angering black voters. They could put her at the top of the ticket, with Newsom as her Veep, which would springboard him to 2028. But that is not going to happen.
Democrats are stuck with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Michelle Obama says she will be helping the Biden campaign, but her involvement will be "limited." Currently, Donald Trump is ahead in every swing state poll, and if the numbers hold up, it could be a devastating election night for Democrats. Their best bet, shore up that Plan B, you know, just in case.
So now that Michelle Obama will NOT be running for president, who is left as a Biden replacement? Newsom? California is a TRAINWRECK.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 5, 2024
Look like the Democrats are going to be stuck with Dementia Biden.
