WHERE'S THE AUTHOR'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE?

Daily Beast gossip columnist Lloyd Grove asks:

Who Wrote the Secret New Obama Novel?

Could it be Robert Gibbs? Joe Klein? David Plouffe? The race is on to figure out the author of a new novel about the Obama administration, says Lloyd Grove -- and no one has even read the book yet.

It is, at minimum, an intriguing coincidence that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced his resignation a mere three weeks before Simon & Schuster is publishing its much-buzzed-about January 25 release, O: A Presidential Novel by the celebrated author "Anonymous."

... The rumors suggest that the mysterious unnamed author has "vast personal experience" of the president and is privy to Obama's 2012 re-election strategy....

An uncredited book about Obama? Hey, I know who wrote it -- Bill Ayers! (Seriously, I hope that when this book comes out, Jack Cashill devotes his days to writing endless multi-part articles for the American Thinker and World Net Daily in which he endeavors to prove through textual "analysis" that Ayers is the author.)

But to get back to the quoted story, I see that Grove offers good reasons why most of the likely suspects aren't all that likely (Obama insiders aren't known for a literary flair and are known for loyalty; Joe Klein's been there and done that; quite a few working journalists insist they wouldn't have had time). As for me, I'm looking at previous coverage (from The Washington Post a couple of days ago) and looking at the publisher (Simon & Schuster) and wondering if the book was written by one of the many Watergate-era Posties who've published books with S&S. Bob Woodward? Too much of a just-the-facts-ma'am guy to write fiction. Ben Bradlee? Too old.

Sally Quinn? Hmmmm.

She seems underemployed these days. She seems like someone who'd want to pull off a stunt like this that's seemingly interesting but actually unoriginal. I'm sure, as a book, it's both gossipy and finger-wagging, and that seems right to me, too.

So even though I know nothing about the book, that's my guess. We'll see.