She was above the fray.

Make no mistake - the fray needs some serious cleaning up.

It's been a mess with all that monster-mashing, preacher-bashing, Muslim-baiting, voting do-overs, calls in the middle of the night, and, the latest, those now-infamous words from the first female vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, who proudly repeated on every show that will have her:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. If he was a woman [of any color], he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is and the country is caught up in the concept."

Lucky? As if black men have made a quantum leap from Willie Horton demon to the new face of privilege. If only it were true.

"Patently absurd." Barack Obama had it right.

I can hear Chris Rock now.

"Y'all [white folks] wouldn't ever swap places with me - and I'm rich!"

Yesterday, Michelle Obama wasn't having any of it.

Poised and still on point, she delivered her husband's message of hope and change, dismissing the political drama.

"To be divisive is part of history," she says. "We can't pretend that it's gone away because years have passed.

"But," the Harvard-educated lawyer and mother of two young daughters offered, "there are millions of folks who are tired of this stuff. They just want health care and to make ends meet. They can't afford $4-a-gallon gas. Those are the issues that the vast majority of Americans want to talk about."

Her husband inspires possibility, she says. The possibility of change.

The five women who shared the roundtable with Michelle Obama were all white, Democrats and Republicans, working moms who live on the Main Line.

And all undecided.

"I'm very impressed with her, and very impressed with his campaign," says Karen Green, 37, a health-care compliance officer and a Republican. "He's about unifying people and getting them not to buy into that partisan nonsense." She's considering switching her party affiliation to vote for Obama.

"Hillary's very bright, she has the experience, but in a way, that's what scares me. People know her. [Obama's] fresh," said math teacher Michelle Daniszewski, 35, a Democrat. "Ferraro's remark was silly because [Obama] won in places where historically black men wouldn't have won."

Like many women voters, they were still trying to figure it out.

"I find I like Bill more now that he's not in office," said Green.

"But he wants to get back in office," noted Maria Spahr, 42, a sales rep and Republican.

Green replied: "I find Hillary smart and capable, but there's something about her that's not . . . "

"Genuine?" said Spahr.

"Ding, ding, ding," Green concurred.

But Hillary was still in the running.

The amicable conversation between women in Ardmore was a far cry from the heated reaction I got to my column last week - the one that explained the problem some black women have with Hillary.

It set off an emotional reflex that still hasn't switched off.

Readers - mostly women - flooded my inbox, opinions split right down the middle. Half blasted me for showing Hillary no sister-love, calling me racist and even sexist, accusing me of taking "cheap shots" at her "because she's white."

The other half heard me. Black women said I had put my finger on something that had been on their minds forever. White women said I expressed a discomfort they had always felt about Hillary.

No need for superdelegates to decide this one. In this historic election, a real conversation is long overdue.

And it's making people think of more than themselves.

As both campaigns barrel into Pennsylvania, the stakes as high as ever, slings and arrows are sure to fly, but Michelle Obama isn't worried about whether her husband can withstand the onslaught.

"This is the test of a leader," she says. "This is nothing compared to what the president will face."

Above the fray, she remains very much decided.