We all know “When Harry Met Sally,” but do we know “When Barack Met Michelle?” We thought we did, but now there seems to be a discrepancy in the story.

Adding to the mystery of Barack Obama’s background, was this comment he made yesterday when he addressed the graduating class of the New Economic School in Moscow. In his opening remarks, he said that he had met his wife “in class.” The exact line was:  “I don’t know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I’m sure that you’re all going to have wonderful careers.” You can view it here or read the transcript from the White House website.  

But that’s not how Michelle remembers it. She told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux last January that she was working at Sidley Austin, a law firm in Chicago, and Barack, who had just finished his first year at Harvard Law School, had been hired as a summer associate. She was picked to be his adviser, she said, probably because they both went to Harvard Law School and were “both minority students.”

This on its own is no big deal. Perhaps. One could be generous and infer that he meant that he was a student when he met his future wife, but that is quite different from saying that you met your wife “in class,” while addressing a classroom full of students.

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