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We should consider making Michelle Obama President of the United States. While she probably wouldn’t get elected, it is likely that she would make a better commander-in-chief than her husband (no disrespect, Barack!). Here are just a few reasons why:

1)  She’s just as smart as her husband: Barack Obama went to an Ivy League school, and so did Michelle.  Barack is a highly trained attorney, and so is Michelle.   In fact, Michelle actually mentored Barack when he first got his job at Sidley Austin, a fancy law firm in Chicago.  I’m sure she can go toe-to-toe with him in any debate.

2) It’s about time we let a woman lead our country. Given that women are now the majority of the American workforce, it is about time for us to let a woman run the country.  Who knows?  Maybe choosing the best person for the job without discriminating based on gender will actually make us better off in the end.

3) She has guts. Michelle has stated that there is nothing shameful about being a strong black woman.  She doesn’t feel the need to make others unnecessarily comfortable or to give in to the irrationality of racism.  Quite frankly, there are times when the president folded in situations where I truly believe Michelle would have stood strong.  She’s not in Washington to make friends, and sometimes, that can be a good thing.

4)  She would choose better advisers. Every time I see a silly decision being made by the Obama Administration or hear that they’ve chosen yet again to ignore the growing Black unemployment problem, someone tells me, “It’s not President Obama, it’s the people around him.”  I don’t disagree:  Obama’s cabinet is whiter than an episode of the TV show “Happy Days.” Reports that Michelle Obama has had friction with the president’s cabinet are not surprising, since she appears to be the one willing to tell them the ugly truth about their choices.

5) She’s not afraid to be Black. Throughout her life, Michelle has written about diversity issues and fought for them. Her graduation thesis at Princeton was titled, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” She has protested against the Harvard Law School’s atrocious record of not hiring African-American professors and seems genuinely concerned about the Black men and women who can’t find jobs.  In fact, Michelle is likely the one who remembers that during the last two months when the country celebrated improvements in the unemployment rate, Black unemployment actually got worse — I’m not sure if the rest of the Obama Administration got the memo.

While no one can prove that Michelle is more qualified than Barack, the fact that being Black and female amounts to automatic disqualification from the presidency reminds us that we are a long way from fulfilling the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Still, I’m going to go out and find me a “Michelle Obama for President” T-shirt.  Somehow I’m sure I won’t be the only one wearing it.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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