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Democrats dream of Biden’s perfect running mate: An Obama

Former Barack Obama adviser Jim Messina said he knows Michelle Obama won’t take the job, but he’s publicly musing about it anyway.

“Remember, she’s the one who’s popular with swing women,” Messina told POLITICO earlier this month. “If I was [Biden], I’d offer her the VP.”

Another former Obama adviser, David Axelrod, said he “would be beyond shocked” if Michelle Obama decided to run, saying she was “a conscript to politics and while she appreciated the chance to do things of value and importance to people, she has no patience for the artifice, nastiness and lust for power that too often consumes the players and the process.”

In her memoir “Becoming,” she talks about the dreadfulness of politics in recalling the painful challenges of getting tagged with the toxic political stereotype of being called an “angry black woman.”

She got the last laugh, however, because “her book is one of the best-selling memoirs ever. And her book events weren’t a signing in a packed local Barnes and Noble, she filled stadiums and arenas,” said Robert Gibbs, a former White House press secretary and Obama adviser.

“The Obamas occupy the most admired woman and the second-most admired man in the world. It speaks to not just what they accomplished in the White House years but also to who they are as people and how they did it,” Gibbs said.

Former Virginia Gov. and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said he witnessed firsthand how popular Michelle Obama is.

“When I ran for governor in 2013, I had everyone helping me, but I put a picture of myself and Michelle Obama in every one of my general election flyers. And I didn’t just use it in African American communities. I used it in every part of the state because she’s so popular,” he said, specifying that rural white women as well as black women in cities alike adore the former first lady.

Biden campaign advisers, basking in President Obama’s endorsement of Biden last week, are making sure to give the former first lady space to decide how involved she’ll be with the campaign.

“We know what pretty much everyone else in America does, which is that Michelle Obama is probably the most beloved member of the Democratic Party and her support is a big deal,” said an adviser who wanted to remain anonymous. “Any future announcement would reflect the incredible impact that her voice has. She has a voice that can cross the aisle in a way that very few people can.”

But until then, the Biden campaign is left in the same position as Sharpton, who said he first prays for his family, then the health of aging Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then Michelle Obama.

“God, if you could change her mind, it would help us a lot,” Sharpton says in his prayers.

Source: politico.com
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