Most parents in his position would go to any lengths to shield their kids from politics.

Obama taps daughters to give big issues a human scale — AP

President Obama likes to talk about his children. What parent doesn’t?

But Obama is not just another father shooting the breeze about his children’s antics in last night’s soccer game. He is the president, and he brings up his daughters to explain his thinking on all sorts of combustible national issues.

He has cited Sasha and Malia, now 10 and 13, in discussing everything from the rescue of an American aid worker from Somalian pirates to the touchy subject of public access to emergency contraception. His daughters also are prominent in a family photo being used by his reelection campaign.

Most recently, Obama brought up his daughters when asked about conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s reference to college student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” after she testified that birth control should be covered by insurance.

Obama said at a news conference that he had called Fluke after Limbaugh made his comments “because I thought about Malia and Sasha, and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on. I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way, and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re good citizens.”

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.

A few months ago, Obama brought up the girls in talking about the government’s decision to keep the Plan B morning-after pill available only to those 17 or older, rather than allowing it to be openly sold on drugstore shelves.

“As the father of two daughters, I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine,” Obama said. He went on to say the drug should not be available for sale to young girls, “and I think most parents would probably feel the same way.”

In January, when an American aid worker was rescued from Somalian pirates by Navy SEALs, Obama thought aloud about what her father had gone through, and about his own daughters.

“I cannot imagine what he went through – given Malia and Sasha – and for him to be able to stay strong,” the president said.