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Speaking of which, I did some digging .. on his book deal, which helped greatly to propel him into the national spotlight.

To wit:

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"Obama's autobiography, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was first published in hardcover by Crown in 1995. Three Rivers Press (the trade paperback division of the Crown Publishing Group) reissued the book in paperback in July 2004, where it has been a New York Times bestseller for fourteen weeks with 350,000 copies in print.

The deal with Crown was initiated by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management and was negotiated and concluded by Robert B. Barnett of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C.

Rachel Klayman, Senior Editor, was the acquiring editor at Crown.

The children’s book was acquired for Knopf by Michelle Frey, Senior Editor, from Robert B. Barnett.

The first book in Crown’s two-book deal is tentatively scheduled for publication in Spring 2006 and will offer a window into the political and spiritual convictions that propelled Obama's recent U.S. Senate victory in Illinois. "I got into politics after law school because it seemed to me that the law was inadequate to the task of affecting change,” says Obama.

"Politics provided a direct link to my background as a community organizer. Today, when I see the divisions in this country, when I see unfairness and injustice, when I see misunderstanding or the enormous empathy deficit that damages so much of our politics, I have to do something about it. It's a lifetime journey and it is the basis for this book."

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Rachel Klayman

"New York Power Couple

David Edelstein may well be the best movie critic around these days. And he's leaving Slate for New York Magazine. Scott Rosenberg writes:

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment : My friend, the movie critic David Edelstein, has been writing wonderfully alive and intelligent pieces for Slate from its very beginning in 1996. That makes him a true Web old-timer. (He's also on NPR's Fresh Air.)

But today the news broke that he is leaving Slate for Adam Moss's revamped New York magazine, which will begin featuring his reviews beginning in January. Congratulations to David -- the Web's loss is New York's gain, and those of us beyond the five boroughs now have one strong reason to point our browsers to http://nymag.com..

And his spouse Rachel Klayman--who is at least as sharp-eyed and quick-witted--is backing Barack Obama for policy and profit:

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The Telegraph - Calcutta : International : Nine years ago, Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was published to good reviews and lacklustre sales. The best estimate his publisher and agent can come up with is that it sold around 15,000 copies. But after his rousing keynote address at the [Democratic] convention [in August 2004]... the Crown Publishing Group [was] racing to ship copies of the book to stores around the country....

"What's really gratifying is that as the months have passed, we've seen him become more and more visible, with booksellers' enthusiasm rising and reaching a fever pitch after the speech," said Rachel Klayman, a senior editor at Crown....

[L]iterary agent Jane Dystel.... "The thing that struck me was his writing, which was unbelievably gorgeous," Dystel said.... [T]he young politician... caught Klayman's attention after he became the Democratic nominee in the Illinois Senate race.

Klayman broached the idea of an Obama book a few days after he won the hard-fought primary. But she also had a dim memory... discover[ed] that her own company was the publisher of Dreams From My Father. But there was no copy of it to be found, not even on the Crown shelves -- something Klayman said is not unusual for a book published so long ago....

"I haven't read too many books by politicians that are as eloquent as his," Klayman said. "I told him that if I were his speech writer, I'd be intimidated."

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This is just a bit strange

*** I haven't found any link yet between Michelle Frey and Stephen Frey, and there may not be one, but Stephen Frey is the author of the book that seems to mimic the current run of an African-American presidential candidate and coincidentally gets the 'whitey' invective in there.

Why Does the Michelle Obama Tape Rumor Match a 2006 Novel?

Sometimes, this rumor of this alleged tape of Michelle Obama denouncing “whitey” sounds like something out of a clichéd political thriller novel.

Actually, it sounds exactly like something out of a clichéd political thriller novel. Specifically, Stephen Frey’s The Power Broker, published in 2006 by Ballantine Books.

A major plot line of the novel is the presidential campaign of Democrat Jesse Wood, aiming to be the country’s first African American president — “Wood was handsome, smart, charismatic, and being mentioned increasingly often in the press as someone who could unite a twenty-first century America growing more, not less, racially and economically divided.” (p.35)

He’s a U.S. Senator from New York and former senior partner at a prestigious law firm. His backers include “some of the old Black Panthers.” He wants to make Puerto Rico a state, and a recurring figure in his campaign is a controversial minister from Philadelphia called “Jefferson Roundtree.”

And by page 130, his opponents find a videotape that could ruin his candidacy…

*snip*

"He said, “You know, I had to put up with so much crap from Whitey when I was playing tennis back in the day, it was ridiculous. Real b****** stuff, too. Tennis racquets busted while I was in the shower, no towels, the worst locker, called n***** all the time, even by the help.”

He looked over at Osgood. “I’m telling you, Clarence, if I get elected president, I’m gonna act the way I’m supposed to act in front of the camera. Smile and dance like a good black man, do what I’m expected to do like a good boy. But behind the scenes, I’ll f*** Whitey, and I’ll f*** him good, I really will.”

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One can only say ... hmmmmmmm