President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, left, and their daughters Sasha and Malia, right, walk from the White House in Washington to attend a Sunday service at nearby St. John's Church. — AP WASHINGTON — Barack Obama likes to talk about his kids. What parent doesn't? But Obama isn't just another dad shooting the breeze about his kids' antics in last night's soccer game. He's the president, and he brings up his daughters to explain his thinking on all sorts of combustible national issues. He's cited Sasha and Malia, now 10 and 13, in discussing everything from the rescue of an American aid worker from Somali pirates to the touchy subject of public access to emergency contraception. Invoking his daughters is a way for Obama to bring big issues down to human scale, in a disarming way. It also is a reminder to Americans of the president's photogenic family — a priceless political asset in an election year. The Obamas can be fiercely protective of their daughters' privacy in some ways — complaining if the girls are photographed while out on their own, for example — but they've been more than willing to keep bringing them up in the national conversation. And to keep them in the minds of voters as November's general election approaches. In January, when an American aid worker was rescued from Somali pirates by Navy SEALs, Obama thought aloud about what her father had gone through, and about his own daughters.
