Washington, Mar. 29 : US First Lady Michelle Obama has spent the past month travelling to North Carolina to rally military families, standing next to Hillary Clinton to encourage women to get politically active, showing up at a home-building site on the National Mall, visiting a District of Columbia school to talk up good grades and shovelling dirt for a "kitchen garden" at the White House.

In between, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced that it would honour her with a special tribute for her contribution to the fashion industry, reports Politico.

Obama, it seems, has become the spokeswoman for all sorts of issues and topics - from fitness, parenting, the environment and women's rights, to redefining images of black women in American culture and promoting self-esteem for young girls.

Yet in the midst of all those themes, it isn't yet clear whether her self-described core messages - about military families, volunteerism, and helping working women balance work and family life - are truly breaking through.

Some wonder if she's spreading herself too thin to emerge in the public mind as a leading voice on those topics.

Aides say she's flattered and still surprised by the intense interest in her - and sees it as a way to advance part of her unofficial agenda.

So rather than worry about diluting her message, they believe she is building a powerful public platform to make her voice heard.

"I think it's fragmented. She stands for so many things right now, she's doing so many things. She's in the kitchen at the White House, she's building houses, she's digging in the garden. It's all very nice, but I thought to myself, `Why is she planting herbs?'" said Mindy Sabella, director of marketing at Siegel+Gale, which specializes in strategic branding.

Obama's early moves have shown the topics where her interests run the deepest.

Early polling has shown that most prefer that Michelle Obama take on education, work-life family balance, or health care.

But she clearly is breaking through and connecting on some level - polls show her favorability ratings in the mid-60s. (ANI)