Media billionaire Oprah Winfrey has better odds of being elected President in 2020 that former Vice President Joe Biden.
BetOnline currently give the star a 20 to one chance at making replacing Trump, whilst Biden is given odds of only 25 to one - the same chance as Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg and New York Senator, Kirsten Gilibrand.
Neither Biden nor Oprah has formally committed to running but both have made clear they’re interested.
Oprah's acceptance speech of the Cecil B. De Mille Award at the Golden Globes sparked widespread speculation that she may be gearing up for a pivot to politics:
Recently Winfrey’s partner, Stedman Graham, told the Los Angeles Times that she would “absolutely do it” before adding that a final decision would be “up to the people.”
Oprah is lovely, she isn't qualified to be President though. Can we stop with the cult of personality approach to politics?
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) January 8, 2018
Last year while appearing as a guest on The David Rubenstein Show she said she’d previously thought herself unqualified to run for such high office.
“I thought, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough, I don’t know.’ And now I’m thinking, ‘Oh,’” she told to audience laughter and applause.
The president and Oprah in their own words #MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/06i86CmwOp
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 9, 2018
Biden late son, Beau, wanted him to run for President in 2016, but he demurred to Hillary Clinton - to his regret. Were he to run and be elected in 2020 he would be 77 - by far the oldest President in the history of the United States.
“I really have not made up my mind,” he told Ellen in November.
So far out from 2020 it is hard to predict who will occupy the Oval Office after Inauguration Day in January 2021. Trump’s approval ratings may be languishing in the 30s but President’s have rebounded from unpopularity before.
It was only in February 2007 that Obama announced he was running; previously most pundits thought Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee and President.
"If Hillary runs Hillary wins—simple as that. She's doing all the right things, going to all the right states, building up political chits, and steering for the middle,” one Democratic insider told The Atlantic in 2005.
In July 2015 CNN said Trump’s chance of getting the nomination were “ just 1%” and as late as October 21 2016 the Washington Post said Trump’s “chances of winning are approaching zero”.
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