I’d agree that the thesis itself doesn’t matter much — if there’s anything outlandish Michelle Obama can just disown it by saying she was a college student not yet in contact with the real world, and that’s not what she believes now.
What is a problem, though, is this attempt to suppress it. That says something about her and the Obama campaign right now. (Princeton will take the fall for it, but the Obamas could have it out in an instant if there wasn’t something in there they were scared of.)
It’s not a big issue, but it definitely stinks.
She probably doesn't want to have to disown it because: (1) She would probably be lying; and (2) Having to disown a black-nationalist marxist viewpoint will lose votes for hubby.
They want to hide her Marxist views as much as his.