Obama says wife, Michelle, will never run for president

Michelle Obama / AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck

For anyone who might like to see Michelle Obama run for president as a Democrat, it’s time to rein in that early enthusiasm. Or so says her husband, President Barack Obama.

“Michelle will never run for office,” the president said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine done the day after Donald Trump’s surprise win, and amid some social media swirl urging the first lady to consider throwing her hat in the ring.

“She is as talented a person as I know. You can see the incredible resonance she has with the American people. But I joke that she’s too sensible to want to be in politics,” Obama said.

Her confidence and style struck a strong chord on the campaign trail, where she supported Hillary Clinton. The first lady slammed Trump’s attitude toward and treatment of women.

Obama, who will be 53 when she leaves the White House, is the first black first lady in American history. Her husband is 55.

A Harvard-educated lawyer, she will leave the White House on January 20 enjoying sky-high ratings — approved by 79 percent of the American public, according to a recent Gallup survey. That makes her more popular than her husband, the first African American president of the United States.

Asked about her ambitions in the past, Michelle Obama has repeatedly said that she would not follow in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton, who ran for the presidency her husband Bill held from 1993-2001.

AFP