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Obama For President 2024 (Michelle)

This article is more than 3 years old.

“The best way out is always through” - Robert Frost, Servant of Servants

After three columns on our truly inspirational servant leader Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the sheer forces of gravity of our day to day news and analysis is driving us back down to Earth, or what might become our own, hard-earned Hell. Our once proud country is taking blows now even from dispassionate, analytical observers as they recount how our sad response to the pandemic reveals a nation no longer the best and in continuing decline.

Our country is still  strong in defense, and strong in finance.  And our  technology innovators,  the big Five, or “FAAMG”—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google (Alphabet) continue to dominate.   Otherwise and sadly though, America is now a large, blustering, sloppy Giant.  Undereducated and in ill health, often from diseases like obesity, drug addiction and type 2 diabetes that suggest uneven self-discipline in diet and exercise.  Our country is  still suffering from the current and after-effects of a failed national security policy focused on a decades-long fatally flawed view that we can fight our way to peace and stability in the Middle East. And, now, on the fly, our government has utterly switched directions in fiscal and monetary policies: more federal government deficit spending—sure, how much? Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, has rejected negative interest rates (which is good, since it’s the monetary equivalent of dividing by negative Zero); and Quantitative Easing 2++, which means that not only is the Fed buying the debt issued by the U.S. Treasury to finance the huge and still growing fiscal deficit but they are also buying corporate and municipal debt. Expect a call soon from the Fed offering to buy your credit card and mortgage debt. What can’t you do under the New Monetary Policy?

Until a couple of weeks ago, it was joyful to consider how we were coming together in mutual support for our neighbors and others in our communities to deal with sheltering-in, social distancing, wearing masks. A glimpse—but just a glimpse it turns out— of how our addressing the pandemic together would break the nasty partisanship we have endured and reveal to us the historic opportunity as a nation of immigrants.  For just a moment, if felt like we would seek, find and occupy the immense common ground we share as Americans. Democratic values like freedom and liberty; a meritocracy where individual and collective effort is rewarded, “when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”; where hard work can allow an employee in the mailroom to become CEO of her company.

Oh, well, it was great while it lasted. Then, President Trump, certain Red State governors, some of our fellow  citizens who embrace the freedom and liberty part but not the individual responsibility part—well, we all understand, it was practically an essential human need to get out of the house, but social distancing? Masks?  No way, that violates my fundamental American right to:

  • Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested Sunday, March 29th in Florida after holding two large worship services at The River of Tampa Bay megachurch. The Pentecostal preacher and COVID-19 conspiracist complained that “they’re trying to beat me up for having the church operational, but we are not a nonessential service. Suddenly we are demonized because we believe that God heals, that the Lord sets people free, and they make us out to be some kook.” There are now over 17,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Florida. After his arrest, Howard-Browne said that he would shut down his church – not to protect his congregation from the pandemic but from “tyrannical government”. Andrew Warren, the attorney for Hillsborough County, FL, said in response that he’d “like to remind the good pastor of Mark 12:31, which says there is no more important commandment than to love thy neighbor as thyself. Loving your neighbors is protecting them, not jeopardizing their health by exposing them to this deadly virus.” 
  • In the middle of March, amid the coronavirus pandemic, roughly 70 students from the University of Texas flew on a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas to enjoy alcohol and the spring break beach. Now, 44 of them have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Many of them were under the impression that young people were not as likely to contract the virus as the elderly; clearly they were misguided. One young man said defiantly in a now viral interview “If I get corona, I get corona. At the end of the day, I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.” 

  • Two thousand Californians flocked to Shasta County’s Cottonwood Mother’s Day Rodeo earlier this month, many of whom did not wear masks or practice social distancing. The county issued a statement saying “Mass gatherings are very high risk events that can spread COVID-19 virus to many individuals at one even. The county condemns this mass gathering and officials are taking steps to investigate the event and will take action accordingly”. One attendee explained his actions by saying “The event has gone on for 50 years. It’s a tradition for most of us, and the rest of the people there have been tired of being cooped up for months.” Another added, “We have constitutional rights. We have inalienable rights given to us by God.” However, if you are like most Americans, you would agree with this tweet by a Shasta County resident: “So embarrassing that Shasta County threw a rodeo against state orders and now the reopening has been pushed back… Y’all so selfish and for what? Some horses?”

  • Dozens of barbershops, tattoo parlors, and beauty salons across the country have similarly defied shelter-in-place orders to keep their businesses up and running. Why would anyone need a new makeover during the coronavirus pandemic? Who exactly are you trying to impress, your pets? Perhaps that tattoo can wait just a few weeks, bro. And you should probably rethink your priorities if you’re hell bent on a slick new haircut. Be a good citizen, your beauty needs can wait. 

There remains one source of hope, our Presidential Election next November 3, 2020.  We know that the Republican ticket will be Trump Pence. One of the seminal questions of our time will be why over 40% of our fellow citizens continue to support our President, pretty much without regard to anything our President and Vice President say or do.

Our Democratic Presidential candidate will be Senator Joseph Biden, whose strengths, weaknesses and political leanings are very well understood—well, except sometimes when he tries to explain himself to us. 

And, so all of our hope for the future rests on who Senator Biden selects as his Vice Presidential candidate. A woman, he has declared. Some say he committed to picking a black woman to Congressman James Clyburn in exchange for his support in the February 29th South Carolina primary, in what history will surely record as the turning point in the Democratic Presidential Primary.

Who should Senator Biden pick as his running mate?

Kamala Harris: Once thought to be excellent, until she showed herself to be awful as a Presidential  primary candidate.

Stacey Abrams: It is said one shouldn’t campaign for the Vice Presidential nomination. She will not disprove that principle.

Amy Klobuchar: Klobuchar for President 2024? Nope.

Tammy Duckworth: Compelling story. A long shot?

Elizabeth Warren: Wall Street says no, SNL says please.

Gretchen Witmer: Liberate Michigan? Biden would pick Amy first.

Susan Rice: You want Obama connection, there is a much better idea below.

Kirsten GillibrandCatherine Cortez Masto, Tammy BaldwinMichelle Lujan Grisham, Val Demings: Who?

In case you are bored, not into this VP candidate thing, let’s up the ante. In our geezerocracy, Senator Biden, already letting out the possibility as a one term President, will be 81 in 2024. President Reagan, hardly a steel-trap mind in his  second term, left office at 77, the same age as Biden is now. Remember President Trump is only 73. 

So, our Democratic Vice President, win or lose in 2020, is the presumptive nominee for Democratic Presidential Candidate in 2024.

Let’s turn up the heat. The senior Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, is up for reelection in 2022. Senator Schumer, turning 70 later this year, makes Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (age 80) seem warm and charming. 

You read it here first?! Ivanka Trump will run for Senator from New York in 2022. Chelsea Clinton is said to be considering to run against her.

And what is the chance that Jared Kushner will consider himself best qualified to run for President in 2024 as the Republican candidate?

Biden Obama (Michelle) 2020. Michelle Obama for President 2024.

We must. She must. 

The best way out is always through.