Obama's day: Workout, briefs, 'anything'

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama - allowing that he has gotten lost at times inside the sprawling executive mansion of the presidency - spoke of how he and his family are adjusting to life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the interview that 60 Minutes aired.

"I have a routine,'' Obama said.

"You know, I typically work out in the morning,'' he said. "Michelle's often there with me. We do our little workout, and then...after the workout, have breakfast, read the papers, read my morning security briefing. And then I come down here and talk to our National Security team. Then we talk to the economic team.

"After that, who knows? Anything goes,'' he said. "But typically, between Seven and Ten, I sort of know what I'm doing."

Obama's family still is exploring grounds that cover 18 acres, a 55,000 square-foot residence and a complex with 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms - and he allowed that he has gotten lost inside.

"Harry Truman called the White House 'The Great White Jail,'' the president said of the "bubble'' that is the modern presidency. "Clinton said he couldn't make up his mind whether it was the finest public housing in America or the jewel of the prison system.

The president strolled along the White House grounds with his interviewer, Steve Kroft of CBS News' 60 Minutes, in what was billed as the longest talk the president has had with a media interviewer since election, some 90 minutes distilled into 60 Minutes' format Sunday night. They had talked Friday evening.

"This is the living quarters, up on the second floor. We got a gym right over there, up on the third floor. And the second floor is, our bedroom's on this side, and we got a dining room on that side. And, yeah, pretty nice digs," the president told Kroft.

Obama finds the job "exhilarating,'' he said. "It's challenging you know, I find that the governance part of it, the decision making part of it, actually comes pretty naturally. I think I've got a great team. I think we're making good decisions. The hardest thing about the job is staying focused. Because there's so many demands and decisions that are pressed upon you.''

Asked about his toughest decision in his first 60 days as president, Obama said: "Well, I would say that the decision to send more troops into Afghanistan. You know, I think it's the right thing to do. But it's a weighty decision because we actually had to make the decision prior to the completion of strategic review that we were conducting.

"When I make a decision to send 17,000 young Americans to Afghanistan, you can understand that intellectually - but understanding what that means for those families, for those young people when you end up sitting at your desk, signing a condolence letter to one of the family members of a fallen hero, you're reminded each and every day at every moment that the decisions you make count."

The most frustrating part of the job?

"The fact that you are often confronted with bad choices that flow from less than optimal decisions made a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, when you weren't here," Obama said. "A lot of times, when things land at my desk it's a choice between bad and worse. And as somebody pointed out to me, the only things that land on my desk are tough decisions. Because, if they were easy decisions, somebody down the food chain's already made them...

"I spend a lot of time reading. People keep on asking me, 'Well, what are you reading these days?' Well, mostly briefing books. You know, you get a little time to read history or you know, policy books that are of interest,'' he said. "But there's a huge amount of information that has to be digested, especially right now. Because the complexities of Afghanistan are matched, maybe even dwarfed, by the complexities of the economic situation. And there are a lot of moving parts to all of that."

Obama manages to work in a day off now and then.

"I do,'' he said. "It's never a full day, but typically Saturdays and Sundays. I'll wander down to the Oval Office I will do some work, but I'll still have time for the kids.''

He has dinner with his family most days and usually sees his two daughters coming home from school in the afternoon - they come see him in the West Wing, whose windows afford Obama a view of the wooden swing set they erected on the South Lawn.

"This is a pretty spectacular swing set," Obama said. "I have to say that I was not the purchaser of this. The admiral, our chief usher, Admiral Steve Rochon, took great interest when we said that we should get a swing set, and found what I assume must be the Rolls Royce of swing sets."

Obama never had one as a child.

"I sure did not,'' he said. "I thought we were gonna get like two swings. But they went all out.''

The children have had friends over - they gave the swing set "a thumbs up'' - and appear to be adjusting well, their father said.

"You know, they are adapting remarkably in ways that I just would not have expected,'' he said. "What's nteresting is actually how unimpressed they are with it... I mean they're going to school. They are unchanged. They're the same sweet, engaging, happy unpretentious kids that they were...

"They do seem to be have fun. And Michelle is thriving as well. I mean she just started a vegetable garden out here.

"All the chefs from the White House staff went down there with her,'' he said of the garden that was turned Friday, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden. "Tthey started diggin' ground. And they're gonna be planting stuff. And this is part of the message that she wants to send about good nutrition."

The president acknowledged that the family - still exploring grounds that cover 18 acres, a 55,000 square-foot residence and a complex with 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms - and even allowed that he has gotten lost inside the executive mansion.

"Harry Truman called the White House 'The Great White Jail.''' He said. "Clinton said he couldn't make up his mind whether it was the finest public housing in America or the jewel of the prison system.

"The bubble that the White House represents is tough," Obama said. "And one of the things that I am constantly struggling with is how to break out of it. And I've taken to the practice of reading ten letters selected from the 40,000 that we get every night, just to hear from voices outside of my staff.

"But the inability to just go, and you know, sit at a corner coffee shop and have a chat with people, or just listen to what folks are saying at the next table, that I think, is something that, as president, you've gotta constantly fight against."