With the current offerings of presidential candidates throwing their hats into the ring for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, many Americans are wishing that former President Barack Obama was able to run for a third term.
Of course, by law, American presidents are only given a maximum of two terms to be elected President of the United States and there are plenty of valid reasons for this, but that isn't stopping many from dreaming of the impossible, like this tweeter:
Indeed, Obama still holds commanding popularity, with some respondents to the tweet answering such things as: "110% yes".
And, there is this C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey conducted in 2021 of U.S. presidents, which ranks Obama as the 10th most popular president in history.
Question is, why are so many people having this dream and these thoughts?
The choices, so far, seem grim
The reasoning behind it are the numerous misgivings folks around the country are having about the available candidate choices thus far.
According to this recent Monmouth University Poll:
"In a contest between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, more voters say they won’t vote for either candidate than say they will."
Current President Joe Biden turned 80 this year, leading many to question whether or not he's simply too old to be running again. Still, others disapprove of his overall job performance predominately because of a floundering economy, according to this poll by Reuters.
And, according to a recent Harvard CAPS Harris poll, two-thirds of respondents say that Biden should not run again.
However, he has remained moderately popular within his own Democratic Party.
At this point, former President Donald Trump is still considered to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination after the campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis failed to be as strong as the latter would have hoped for.
And the 2024 presidential return hopeful still has plenty of diehard supporters throughout the country.
Still, he's seen by many others to be too divisive and hopelessly embroiled in multiple scandals and legal entanglements. Even so, his overall polling numbers have remained fairly steady.
Some have been turning to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who according to the same Harvard CAPS Harris poll has the highest popularity rating of any other candidate. However, it's yet to be seen whether or not he could actually beat Biden in order to clinch the Democratic nomination.
And his own candidacy has been embroiled in controversy and "media attacks" over his numerous conspiracy theories.
Closing thoughts
So, even though this may seem like a completely inane question, if it were indeed possible for you to vote once again for Barack Obama for President of the United States in 2024, would you do it?
Better yet, perhaps what we really need is what occurred in the leadup to the 2008 election. Obama just seemed to come from out of literally nowhere and quickly gain popularity to steal both the limelight and the 2008 Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton.
Perhaps a similar 2024 stand-out candidate is still out there? Could it be Vivek Ramaswamy?
What do you think?
*Updated on Aug. 1, 2023, to include the C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey of 2021.