Budowsky: A Biden-Michelle Obama ticket would win in a landslide

There is a new movement seeking to change the course of history by organizing a draft of former first lady Michelle Obama to run for vice president on a ticket led by former Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden is blessed with a wealth of potential vice presidential nominees, including three women who ran against him in the primaries and a number of extremely talented governors who would all make outstanding nominees for any office they may ultimately seek.

I applaud the movement to draft Michelle for vice president. It will test the breadth and depth of support for the idea, which I wrote about in a column here last November.

We live at a defining moment in history. We are plagued by a virus that is killing our fellow Americans with leading medical authorities warning that the death rate could soon rise to 3,000 a month. We are plagued by national divisions exploited by the most bitterly divisive president in American history. We are plagued by an economy that inflicts indescribable joblessness, misery and pain on our people. We are alienated from our democratic allies around the world.

Given the magnitude of danger facing our nation, and for Democrats and many other Americans, the magnitude of danger to our democracy if President Trump is reelected with a Republican Congress which, with the Supreme Court, would give him virtually unlimited power in a second term — the case for Michelle Obama as VP is powerful and compelling.

A Biden-Obama ticket would have a high probability of winning the White House, very possibly by an epic landslide, and winning control of the Senate as well as the House. A Biden-Obama victory would represent the historical greatness of the Democratic Party, would decisively change all three branches of government, and would powerfully change the course of American and world history.

Michelle Obama, who served as first lady by the side of the hugely popular and highly regarded former President Obama, is one of the most popular and respected figures in American public life. She would electrify the Democratic Party and have enormous and widespread appeal to independent voters, swing voters, and moderate Republican voters, especially women, who are appalled by the prospect of another Trump term.

Michelle Obama would inspire a huge turnout among young, female and minority voters. Because she was at the center of the Obama presidency that helped save the nation from a depression after the great financial crash in 2008, she would have vast appeal to working class voters, along with Biden, who want leaders to create jobs and enhance opportunity for all.

It is often said that Michelle Obama would not accept the nomination if Biden calls. Personally, I do not know. But as President Kennedy said, at great moments we should ask what we can do for our country. This is a great and dangerous moment where she can literally change the course of history. A Biden-Obama presidency would lift the spirit of the nation and have a decisive impact on the presidency, the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court.

Joe Biden and Michelle Obama are universally known to all voters after eight years at the epicenter of a highly successful presidency as decent, honorable, credible and highly competent public figures who cannot be defined by Trump or any Republican.

When former President George W. Bush recently spoke eloquently about national unity of a nation in this together against the deadly virus, President Biden and Vice President Obama would have reached out to share his appeal to unity unlike Trump, who cheapened the presidency by insulting him.

Above all, Biden and Obama would stand for a great America that includes all Americans. An economy that lifts all boats. A simple justice that applies to all people. An American Dream that lives forever, for everyone everywhere as a beacon of democracy for the world.

A Biden-Obama ticket would probably win a landslide that historians would discuss for a hundred years.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.