First lady pushes aside book's portrayal

WASHINGTON -- First lady Michelle Obama is challenging assertions she has forcefully imposed her will on White House aides and says people have inaccurately tried to portray her as "some kind of angry black woman."

Obama tells CBS News she has not read the new book by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor that characterizes her as a behind-the-scenes force in the Executive Mansion, whose strong views often draw her into conflict with President Barack Obama's top advisers.

"I never read these books," she told CBS' Gayle King in an interview broadcast yesterday. "So I've just gotten in the habit of not reading other people's impressions of people."

In the book, Obama is said to have bristled occasionally at some of the demands and constraints of life in the White House.

In the interview, she said, "I love this job. It has been a privilege from day one.

"Now there are challenges," she added. "If there's any anxiety that I feel, it's because I want to make sure that my girls [Malia and Sasha] come out of this on the other end whole."

The Kantor book portrays a White House in which tensions developed among her and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs.

The book, titled "The Obamas," describes the first lady as having gone through an evolution from struggle to fulfillment in her role at the White House, while labeling her an "unrecognized force" in pursuing the president's goals. Neither the president nor his wife agreed to be interviewed for the book.

"I do care deeply about my husband," Obama said in the CBS appearance. "I am one of his biggest allies. I am one of his biggest confidantes."

But she sought to put aside "this notion that I sit in meetings."

"I guess it's just more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here," she said. "That's been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced; that I'm some kind of angry black woman."

"There will always be people who don't like me," she added, and said she could live with that. She said that she's "just trying to be me, and I just hope that over time, that people get to know me."