Couldn’t the various memoirs be what the CIA would refer to as a history? A cover? If he was recruited and/or bought as a very young man, then his handlers would want something in place to refer to if questions were asked further down the line.

It just makes no sense to write an autobiography when you’re first starting out, when you don’t have a lot of experience to chronicle, and when you really can’t predict that you’ll end up running for President in 20 years. It’s an effort to draw a line in the sand to define yourself so that no one will ever be able to pull back the curtain to look at the real Mighty Oz.

And why would you feel the need for a definition at a very young age unless there was something to hide, like the possibility that you’re an extraordinarily well-funded plant leading a double-life designed to put you into the higher echelons of the US government.

I’m increasingly wondering how and when he met Michelle and what *her* background is — if she had a similar sudden leap into existance as a fully-grown character worthy of an autobiography in her early 20′s.