Barack Obama said in an interview aired today that Republicans should leave his wife alone and confine their criticism to him and his policies.

 

“If they think they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful,” he said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Because that I find unacceptable.”

 

Obama was talking about a web video produced by the Tennessee Republican Party last week that featured a remark she made back in February.

 

Critics claimed that Michelle Obama was being unpatriotic when she said, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my country.”

 

“Michelle is the most honest, the best person I know,” Obama said “She is one of the most caring people I know. She loves this country . . . And for them to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her, I think, is just low-class.”

 

Michelle Obama was present for the interview and said she thinks Americans are ready to focus on issues and not on things “that have nothing to do with making people’s lives better.”

 

The candidate then jumped in to add, “But I also think these folks should lay off my wife. All right? Just in case they’re watching.”