Tales from the Trail

President Obama is staying neutral on the Super Bowl, dislikes the “bubble” of being president, and enjoyed (go figure) political science in college.

Those were some of the takeouts from the president’s roughly 45-minute interview Thursday on the Internet site YouTube, which posed questions to him from viewers across the country.

Asked what his favorite thing was about being president, Obama said having a positive impact on people’s lives took first place.

What does he not like?

“(The) toughest thing about being president is the ‘bubble.’ I can’t go for a walk, I can’t go to the corner coffee shop, I can’t leave the house and not shave,” he said. “That is something that I don’t think I’ll ever get used to.”

The shaving part would be a drag…

The president declined to predict a winner in the February 6 Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Probably a wise move.

He opined that engineers should be rewarded as much as lawyers and investment bankers and said his favorite class in college was political science.

The president also joked that Valentine’s Day gifts for his wife, Michelle, were getting more and more expensive, the longer he worked as a politician.

“I’ve got more to make up for,” he said. “Used to be I could just get away with flowers.”

Obama said actually his wife wanted time together more than anything. “We always try to get a date night out on Valentines Day,” he said.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed (Obama and family return from Hawaiian vacation)