I’ve been reading advance coverage of this new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of a American Marriage all day, and I’m not a happy camper. While I don’t doubt some of the material being released from the book, I find other parts to be very sketchy. The author of the book is Christopher Andersen, and he’s not any kind of authorized biographer. From what I can tell, he’s one of those legitimate journalists who tends towards writing soap-operatic-style biographies of prominent women. Looking at his previous works, I see three books about Princess Diana and her sons, two books on Hillary Clinton, two about Jackie Kennedy, and one about Caroline Kennedy. He tends towards two different types of research-driven books: first, [Blank] and [Blank]: Portrait of a Marriage; and second, The Day [Blank] Died. Half of his books fit into those two categories, I swear.

According to Andersen, during the campaign, Michelle Obama was really pissed off with all of the women who “pushed their bodies up against [Barack], slipped phone numbers into his pockets” and whispered things to him. Michelle was not only mad at the women, she would often give Barack the silent treatment:

When your husband is the most sought-after figure in the Free World, how do you handle female admirers grab-happy for his behind?

First Lady Michelle Obama allegedly says, “Get a life” – at least according to author Christopher Andersen in his new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage.

Writing about first couple’s very public relationship and the flood of the Mr. Obama’s very over-eager female fans on the campaign trail, Andersen states – as was first reported by the New York Post – that on a number of occasions, Barack Obama would hide his shock and surprise when women would reach for him, allegedly professing, “Jesus, I wish they’d stop grabbing my ass.”

Understandably upset, Mrs. Obama had words of her own for her husband’s admirers. “I want to tell these women, ‘Back off, get a life’, ” Andersen quotes her as saying. “It’s just embarrassing, that’s all.”

When it came to all the attention her husband received from the ladies, Michelle reportedly said, “He’s loving it. He’s a man, isn’t he?”

And while the book claims that at the time these situations would push the First Lady to give the President the silent treatment, Andersen quotes a source as also suggesting that Michelle personally managed to help remove a particular campaign worker from Barack’s orbit once the working relationship had grown closer than she liked.

A White House spokeswoman declined comment.

[From People]

I wish I could hear Obama say the words, “Jesus, I wish they’d stop grabbing my ass.” As far as the report about this campaign staffer that Michelle was worried about, Page Six had more from Andersen’s book, where he says that the rumors indicated “that it was more than just the random flirting from strangers that was getting to Michelle. Her husband, it would later be reported, had grown close to an attractive young African-American woman [working for the Obama campaign] named Vera Baker. When Baker suddenly and inexplicably vanished from the campaign and resurfaced on the Caribbean island of Martinique, tongues reportedly began wagging. A jealous Michelle, it was suggested, had engineered Baker’s departure.” Baker went on to tell a reporter, “Nothing happened . . . I don’t have anything to say.” What’s more likely, that Obama was nice to a girl who got a crush, and then got fired, or that Michelle engineered something sinister? I tend to think Michelle wouldn’t tolerate anything like that – and Barack knows it.