Former first lady Michelle Obama on Thursday reiterated that she has no White House ambitions despite her name being floated among potential Democratic contenders.
“The reason why I don’t want to run for president, I can’t speak for Oprah, but my sense is that first of all you have to want the job,” Obama said at a women’s empowerment forum in Boston, as reported by NBC News.
{mosads}”And you can’t just say, ‘You’re a woman, run.’ And we can’t look for women like that. We can’t just say let’s find the women we like and ask them to do it, because there are a million women who are inclined and who do have the passion for politics,” she continued.
The former first lady attracted political speculation after a well-received speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, with many of her supporters urging her to launch a future run for the White House.
“Just because I gave a good speech, and I’m smart and intelligent doesn’t mean I should be the next president,” she said on Thursday.”That’s been our problem. We’re very shortsighted about how we think about selecting the commander in chief.”
Obama has repeatedly said she will not run for office, saying last year she “wouldn’t ask [her] children to do this again.”