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Group Urges Obama to Run for President - of France


A French group is trying to get former president Obama to run for office in France.
A French group is trying to get former president Obama to run for office in France.

Former president Barack Obama can not run again for president in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping a group of French fans who are trying to get him to run in their upcoming election.

Paris has been canvassed with “Obama17” signs, which urge people to visit a website to sign a petition for the former U.S. president to run.

According to the website, Obama is their choice "because he has the best resume in the world for the job.”

The site also alludes to the rising popularity of right-wing parties in France.

"At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner," according to the website, which is in French.

According to ABC News, a spokesman for the group behind the website said, “We started dreaming about this idea two months before the end of Obama's presidency. We dreamed about this possibility to vote for someone we really admire, someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future.”

There’s just one catch to their plan: To be president of France, you have to be French.

The latest French polls show Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front party in the lead. The election will be held in April.

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