Washington, Jan. 11 : A new book on President Barack Obama and U. S. First Lady Michelle Obama reveals that Michelle Obama saw the presidency as an opportunity for her husband to rise above petty politics and achieve sweeping change.

According to the book titled “The Obamas,” by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, Michelle became the president’s liberal anchor, reminding him of the pledges he’d made on health care, immigration and other issues.

She was especially vocal in encouraging Obama to keep pushing on health care after Republican Scott Brown won the Senate seat that Ted Kennedy had held for decades.

She also was deeply ambivalent about being first lady and briefly considered staying in Chicago with her daughters until the end of the school year.

According to The Politico, she ultimately realized that she needed to move her family to the White House.

But during the first two years of her husband’s term, she turned down most requests to campaign for Democrats or otherwise get involved in politics.

The book also reveals that Obama’s first chief of staff Rahm Emanuel battled with Michelle Obama to the extent that they had “almost no bond.”

According to Kantor, both maintained a “relationship that was distant and awkward from the beginning.”

Emanuel was a consummate Washington insider who thought that even the president was not above deal making and backslapping.

Michelle Obama on the other hand viewed her husband’s top advisers as “insular, disorganized” and “not careful planners who looked out for worst-case scenarios.” (ANI)