According to a new poll conducted by the Boston Herald, Michelle Obama would instantly rocket to the top of the New Hampshire standings if she were to throw her hat into the Democratic primaries tomorrow. The poll found that while Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders are in a statistical tie for first place in the Granite State, the former first lady would blast past all of them if she were to suddenly announce her candidacy.
From the Boston Herald:
While there’s no indication that Obama has an interest in running in 2020, the poll gives an intriguing glimpse into what the race would look like if the former first lady decides to follow in her husband’s footsteps and give presidential politics a try.
The former first lady leads all the other Democrats with 26 percent of the vote in a theoretical matchup against Warren, Biden, Sanders and the rest of the field, according to the poll of 422 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters. Warren and Biden would each get 20 percent against Obama while Sanders would trail with 15 percent.
Without Obama in the race, Warren gets 25 percent of the vote, Biden gets 24 percent, while Sanders follows with 22 percent, according to the poll, conducted Oct. 9-13. All three are within the statistical margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent. Just seven percent of likely Democratic voters say they are undecided with four months left before the primary.
We’re not sure what this says about the current Democratic field, except that the party is definitely not running their strongest contenders. We’re also not sure what makes Michelle O a strong contender, though, so what do we know? She did what? Harangued schoolchildren to get in shape? That suits you for the highest office in the land…how exactly?
In any event, it’s all academic. Michelle Obama has said she has no interest in running for public office, and we don’t get any sense that’s a calculation that will change anytime soon – certainly not in time for her to jump into this race. But it’s certainly got to be a bit of a morale killer for Democrats to realize that a former first lady with no political experience at all could enter the race and knock them all out of contention overnight.
