Former White House and Pentagon official Doug McKinnon said recently in an op-ed for The Hill that if President Joe Biden doesn't run for a second term in office, the party should look to former First Lady Michelle Obama to fill that position above all other potential candidates. 

McKinnon's take comes from a Politico report that senior Democrat party leaders are holding onto Biden as a candidate despite his age and perceived diminished mental capacity because they are afraid Vice President Kamala Harris will be next in line to run--and they fear she will lose because people just don't like her or think she's competent to run the entire country.

He named Obama as one of four potential "past superstars" that could come in as a Hail Mary candidate and save the party from ruin. The other three--John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore--are all over 70 and are not nearly as intersectional or unsullied as Obama.

The fly in the ointment is that Obama has said dozens of times that she has no interest in running for president, ever. Zero interest. She's been very clear.

A formidable candidate

McKinnon is right that Obama would be a formidable candidate. She was viewed generally favorably along with her husband when he was president, and after she left the White House, she wrote a wildly successful memoir and toured the country with Oprah until COVID cut that short.

She doesn't have half the baggage the other three have--no Benghazi, no failed presidential runs, no health problems, and no flying private jets while complaining about climate change.

She's a Black woman like Harris, but she seems like she could run the country better. She definitely has a lot over other potential candidates who actually might want to run for the Democrat nomination, like California Governor Gavin Newsom, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and disastrous Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

People generally like her, and Democrats really like her. She'd turn a race between her and Trump into a personality contest, and Trump would lose unless there are some nasty things about her that no one knows at this point and she allows them to come out.

It's a good thing for Republicans that she has said no to running, at least so far.

Biden's Weekend at Bernie's moment

Short of somehow convincing Obama to run after she and her ex-president hubby have made millions off her book, a Netflix deal and his speaking engagements and are living in relative obscurity in the lap of luxury in two multi-million dollar homes in Washington, D.C. and Martha's Vineyard, the party is stuck with less than palatable alternatives to Biden.

They're just going to have to prop Biden up, Weekend at Bernie's style, for another five and a half years plus, because he's the least of all evils for them right now.

At age 80, it's understandable, if less than ideal, when Biden makes gaffe after gaffe, tells lie after lie, and you can't understand half of what he's saying.

He can chalk all of that up to age, but when Harris does the exact same thing, adding her signature cackle, it's just scary. Not a bit confidence-inspiring like you'd hope a presidential ticket would be.

Neither one of them is capable of running the country, but they're the "best" the Democrats have got right now, so they might just have to stick with them.