'Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage'

He describes a reluctant groom-to-be, a sometimes-stormy union, and a woman sick of emptying his overflowing ashtrays -- and being shut out by his ambition. He says the Obamas survived the crucibles of battling infertility, helping nurse daughter Sasha to health after meningitis and coping with early political defeat (and debt). By the inauguration they were "indisputably the First Couple not only of America but of the world."

The book, relying in part on unnamed sources, serves up plenty of dish from the Obamas' youth, nearly 17-year marriage and up-and-down journey to the White House.

Andersen says Michelle Obama helped shoot down the prospect of Hillary Clinton being tapped as her husband's running mate. "Do you really want Bill and Hillary just down the hall from you in the White House?" it quotes her as saying.

According to the book, when Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in the 2004 elections, he at first thought the David Axelrod-designed campaign slogan, "Yes we can," was corny. But the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then his pastor, and Michelle Obama liked it.

The book, from publisher William Morrow, went on sale Tuesday for $25.99.