Washington - US President Barack Obama on Thursday poured cold water on the speculation that First Lady Michelle Obama would run for president in the future.
Answering a question at a town hall event held at the McKinley Senior High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Obama said Michelle would not run for president is a certain thing in life.
“No,” Obama said. “No, no, no. No, no.”
“Let me tell you, there are three things that are certain in life: Death, taxes and Michelle is not running for president,” Obama said.
At the same time ,the president praised his wife for her work to reduce childhood obesity and helping military families together with Second Lady Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden.
Obama also joked that Michelle still looks very young while he has aged after seven years as president.
“Not only is she going to be a very young ex-first lady, unlike me, she looks young,” Obama said.
Talking about watching recently the video of their wedding in 1992, Obama said he realised “I sure have aged.”
“But Michelle, she looked identical,” he joked.
Responding to a question about his future plan after leaving the White House next year, Obama said he and Michelle “haven’t had a chance to really step back and think about it.”
However, Obama said he would probably continue to work on the things that they care so deeply about, such as encouraging young people to improve education, reforming the criminal justice system, promoting science education, and working internationally to help other countries to develop.
“So we’re going to have a busy agenda, but I’m not overthinking that right now because I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to do between now and next year,” said Obama.
There had been speculation last year that Michelle Obama could consider running for the White House this year in order to succeed his husband.
Some even predicted that if Michelle enters the presidential race this year, she could pose a serious threat to former First Lady Hillary Clinton who is now running for the second time for president.
Xinhua