It hit me this morning over my oatmeal, as I read The Nation’s special issue devoted to “The Obama Years.” Adrienne Kennedy, an African American playwright who has taught at Harvard where she is now a research fellow, was marveling over Michelle: her grace, her authenticity, her brains, her wit, her beauty, her language, her compassion, her confidence, and her devotion to husband, children, mother — and the nation.
“Whenever I saw Michelle on TV during the presidential campaign,” Kennedy writes, “I would think, ‘What a strong and strong-willed person she must be, and what a dedicated, brilliant, and determined young woman she must have been to navigate Harvard Law.’”
I felt my pulse quickening. I had just finished reading the sickening news about Trump’s dossier. And he isn’t even in office.
But then, reading The Nation, it hit me: Michelle Obama could run for president! Why not? Sure, she says she wouldn’t do it, but would she reconsider if things unfold in the dreadful way they are headed? What would it take to convince her?
Kennedy concludes her piece this way: “Michelle Obama is one of the few political figures I admire, the first first lady I’ve wanted to be since I read Eleanor Roosevelt’s newspaper column “My Day.” I would like to address the entire world with her grace. I have studied how she engages great power and utilizes it, and I will continue to learn from her. She has had a role like no other American black woman in history. Watching Michelle Obama has been, and is, a precious education. And a joy.”
I agree with Kennedy — Michelle is fully Eleanor Roosevelt’s equal (I grew up near Hyde Park and she always was my hero!)
President Michelle Obama. It has such a nice ring. She would be the First Female African American President. Sounds perfect to me.