Can Michelle fix it? Yes, she almost certainly can

Either way, all former first spouses, to a woman, will be watching how Mrs Obama copes with her current media troubles. Though she has hardly wanted for attention before, a new, unauthorised biography of the Obamas, published in America this week, places Michelle la belle under unprecedented scrutiny. As its title suggests, The Obamas, by Jodi Kantor, a reporter for the New York Times, focuses on the first African-American couple to occupy the east and west wings. But it is Kantor's portrait of Michelle, and her relationship with some of the president's men and women, that have caught the public's attention. After four years in the White House, everyone and his Portuguese Water Dog knows the Barack back story by now. Michelle is another matter. There had to be something more to her than Vogue covers and an interest in preventing childhood obesity, and Kantor has set out to find it.

In wanting to know more about the First Lady, Kantor is far from alone. From Martha Washington and Abigail Adams onwards, they have been objects of curiosity, though none of the early lot could have even begun to comprehend the attention their successors would receive.

It was Eleanor Roosevelt, with her passions and causes, who was the first to pluck the media apple from the tree. Between her press conferences and newspaper column, Mrs Roosevelt and every presidential spouse since has had cause to thank or curse her for it. Henceforth, first ladies mattered, their style and attitudes being seen as a reflection of their husbands' politics and personalities. Jackie O the queen of Camelot, unassuming Rosalynn Carter, fancy Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush (perhaps the fiercest dame of them all), Hillary "president in a pants suit" Clinton, Laura the librarian Bush, and now Michelle Obama.

Going by Kantor's book, voters can choose between several portraits of Mrs Obama. There is Michelle the "tiger mother", driving her two daughters towards educational and sporting excellence, one extra-curricular session at a time. According to Kantor: "In the White House she pushed and watched her daughters relentlessly: if the girls went on a trip, they had to write their parents a report."

Or there's Michelle the Incredible Sulk, the wife who isn't keen on public engagements and lets her husband's aides know if they displease her. One such incident involved a story about Mrs Obama reportedly telling Carla Sarkozy that life in the gilded White House cage was "hell".

After Mrs Obama denied saying this, the White House press secretary went into firefighting mode, and the story went nowhere. Even so, a message came through from the east wing that Michelle thought it could have been handled better. Staffers' toys were thrown spectacularly out of prams. Expletives were left undeleted.

Seen from this side of the Atlantic, the charges levelled at Mrs Obama amount to little. She is interested in her daughters' education and is keen for them to excel. Sounds like any decent parent. She doesn't want them to be spoiled. Common sense, given the experience of other children who have grown up in the public eye. Looking out for her husband's interests? All part of a spouse's job.

That she finds herself having to account for her actions, as she did this week in a CBS interview, says much about the position of the First Lady in American politics, the nature of the White House, and Michelle Obama herself.

As Hillary Clinton soon discovered, there's an invisible force field surrounding any First Lady, and if she tries to exert too much power she finds herself zapped. Remember what happened with Hillary and healthcare reform. Even the keenest followers of blood sports couldn't stomach that one. In comparison, Mrs Obama has been meekness and mildness personified, choosing her "causes", including supporting military families, with care.

Her mistake was not involving herself in national politics, but in becoming caught up in court shenanigans. It may come as a surprise to Mrs Obama, but there are people surrounding the President who think they are as close to him as she is. Not in a certain sense, obviously, but they've been around a while now, these courtiers and confidants. They put in the hard yards, stuck by him during the early years, had faith, built him up, spent time with him often at the expense of their own families. His fortunes are their fortunes. They didn't spend all those years photocopying on political campaigns, studying at Ivy League universities, travelling state to state, eating cold pizza for breakfast, just to be told off by "the wife".

But Mrs Obama doesn't see herself as just any wife, or any First Lady. As Kantor acknowledges, as the first African-American in the role, Michelle Obama has that pesky hand of history on her shoulder. This is a proud woman, one who has made her way from the south side of Chicago to Princeton and Harvard and a successful law career (if you don't count Obama's book earnings, she put more into the family purse than he did). She knows her worth, so it's no surprise that she has come out fighting in a CBS News interview.

Insisting that all was well between her and west wing staff, she said: "I guess it's more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here ... that's been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced, that I'm some angry black woman."

There, she said it, the B word. And the W word. The lady is not for prevaricating. Unlike her husband, who resorts to oratory at the first sign of threat, Mrs Obama will cut straight to the point as she sees it.

It is something of a miracle that it is only now, as her husband seeks re-election, that she is coming in for criticism. If she is as smart as she seems, she will recognise this and stride on regardless. Discreet, canny, effective, a slugger when she needs to be. Sometimes one wonders if America elected the wrong Obama.