Obama & life above 'the company store'

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, a father of two who spent a few years away from home in the Senate and the better part of a couple years on the trail campaigning for president, often has spoken of the joy of waking up in the White House and walking downstairs and across a colonnade to the Oval Office.

Living above "the company store'' has advantages for the president's bearings, his advisers say - keeping his family close at hand helps to keep him strong.

"The president is the easiest guy in the world to talk to,'' adviser David Axelrod says in that Situation Room interview with the president's inner circle that CNN will show today.

"And he solicits your points of view. He listens. He's a great listener.'' Axelrod says. "But I will say this about the family. I think the thing that got him down the most during the campaign, it wasn't the really tough things that we had to face, it was being away from his family....And even with all the stuff that he has to deal with as president, I think his mood is consistently good, in part because he gets to see his kids every day.

"He has dinner with them every night... He wakes up and sees them every morning,'' Axelrod says. "And just working above the store has been an incredible plus for him.''

"It's the first time in a long time.... he's been able to do that,'' says Communications Director Anita Dunn. "He was a Senate candidate in 2004... .traveling. 2005, 2006, you know, he was in Washington and -- and then was a presidential candidate for two years.

"It's a source of strength for him to have his whole family,'' CNN host Wolf Blitzer interjects.

"Oh, absolutely,'' Dunn says.

"And he uses that term,'' Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says, "What a beauty it is to live above the company store....He can be in the Oval Office. He walks about 90 seconds, and he's sitting in his -- his dinner table.''