Historians say first ladies must pick their issues cautiously

Michelle Obama's two big issues — child obesity and military families — are carefully chosen, appealing and uncontroversial.

Indeed, first ladies must pick their causes strategically, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who directs the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Their issues must help the president but not make it appear the first lady is usurping his power and "as a result, exercising unelected power," Jamieson said....

Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, a scholar in residence at George Mason University, noted that support for military families has tended to be a bigger issue for the Republican Party....