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Michelle Obama enjoys a nearly unparalleled degree of public esteem. YouGov ranks her No. 2 on its list of most popular public figures, just behind Jimmy Carter. (Barack is No. 4.) In 2018 she ended Hillary Clinton’s 16-year streak as America’s most admired woman according to Gallup. Obama retained the honor through 2020, the last year the poll was conducted. No one else came close to beating her.

It’s not just that people love Obama as a person. Americans want her in politics. In a July 2024 poll that posed hypothetical presidential matchups between Donald Trump and various Democratic contenders, including Joe Biden, only Obama beat Trump, and handily so—50

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