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'Laura Bush' Novelist Falls for Michelle

Candidate's 'believable' wife 'lives in the same world we do'

By M. Morris, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 28, 2008 3:36 PM CDT

(Newser) – The divide between the chattering classes and the average voter comes into sharp focus when spending time with Michelle Obama, novelist Curtis Sittenfeld writes for Time. Sittenfeld's recently released American Wife is about a character clearly based on Laura Bush, who "inspires my affection and sympathy," but Obama "is completely and totally believable as a person who lives in the same world we do."

Acknowledging but leaving aside thorny issues such as race and education, "I've encountered more people who, if anything, seem more infatuated by Michelle than by her husband," writes Sittenfeld. She goes on to quote "the most poignant comment I heard her make" on the campaign trail: "Sometimes I do feel as if people don't believe I exist. I'm probably the first person of my kind the nation has seen out there."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Valerie Jarrett, left,, senior adviser and close friend of Barack Obama, attends Friday's presidential debate at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., with Michelle Obama. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., walks into the Congressional Black Caucus banquet with his wife Michelle Obama in Washington Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Michelle and Barack Obama after the first presidential debate with John McCain at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. Friday, Sept. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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The delicate dance that Michelle is required to perform calls to mind the axiom that blacks must be twice as good as whites to get half as far. - American Wife author Curtis Sittenfeld

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'Laura Bush' Novelist Falls for Michelle