Michelle Obama Won’t Run For President. Plans to “Go into My 60s Blazing.”

Michelle Obama

Ever since the historic 2008 election, many supporters of Michelle Obama have been speculating whether The First Lady might also have aspirations for holding a political office. For Obama, who has dedicated her public life over during her husband’s presidency to raise awareness about the importance of nutrition and the education of girls, running for office seems like an understandable next move. But unlike another former First Lady, Obama has made it clear that while she will continue to work and advocate for good causes, she doesn’t have any interest in holding office.

During a panel at SXSW for her Let Girls Learn intiative, Obama was joined by Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, Sophia Bush, and Diane Warren. At one point, Queen Latifah asked “Michelle Obama, will you run for president?”

“I will not run for president,” Obama responded, shaking her head and smiling. “One of the reasons is that I’ve got these two young people at home. Being the daughters of a president, just think about it, not so easy. They handled it with grace and poise, but enough is enough. You don’t have to be president of the United States to do marvelous things. Talk about your 30s being good? How about your 50s! And I expect to go into my 60s blazing. Trying to be as fly and healthy as I can be. . . . There is so much I can do outside of the White House, sometimes much more without the constraints and the lights and the cameras and partisanships . . . and with that, I’ll go off into the sunset.”

Obama also wistfully expressed the fact that she would miss all of the individuals that she had the opportunity to meet and work with during her time in the White House.