by Jill Zuckman

In a three-page letter sent to voters and potential donors last week, Michelle Obama dishes on her first date with her now-husband, Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, and vouches for his readiness for the White House.

The details she shares are thoroughly flattering, unlike some of the things she's said on the campaign trail lately, such as talk of her husband's dirty socks, or his inability to make their bed or put away the butter.

"It wasn't exactly a typical date with an up-and-coming, Harvard-educated lawyer who worked at a prestigious Chicago firm,'' she writes. "He didn't take me to a fancy restaurant. There were no tickets to the opera or ballet, nor did we rub elbows with high society.

"Instead, he took me to a small neighborhood church on the south side of Chicago," she continued, describing his "inspirational" talk to the neighborhood audience. "And that was the day when I realized the man I was going to marry, Barack Obama, was a very different, truly extraordinary, human being."

Besides serving as a fund-raising tool, Michelle Obama's letter is part of an effort to beat back criticism that the senator is inexperienced and unready for the presidency, a notion that Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign is doing everything it can to promote.

Obama's campaign is working to make sure that voters realize that their candidate has been actively serving the public for more than two decades, including his time as a community organizer before leaving Chicago for Harvard law school.

Wherever she campaigns, Michelle Obama writes, people have asked her whether Barack Obama is ready to be president.

"My answer? Absolutely. Barack's ready. Our family is ready. Our daughters are ready. We wouldn't have gotten into this race if we had even a moment's doubt,'' says Michelle Obama. "The real question…Is America ready for Barack Obama?"

Michelle Obama describes her husband's campaign as "a test of America as much as a test of us.'' And she writes that it bothers her that people when people ask whether he is experienced, they define the idea so narrowly.

"This is a man who has spent the last 25 years – a quarter of a century – as a civil rights lawyer and a state legislator and a United States senator,'' she said. "He spent years putting shoe leather on the ground as a community organizer in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago.''

Furthermore, writes Michelle Obama, "there is no experience that matters more. No other background could better prepare a candidate to be president of the United States.''

In an insert with her letter, the campaign includes a sheet asking for contributions of $35 to $1,000 or more. It says, "Dear Michelle, I believe that Barack Obama – constitutional scholar, civil rights attorney, community activist, U.S. Senator – is ready to be president of the United States. That's why I'm rushing a contribution to Obama for America."