President Obama was recently unveiled as the cover star of GQ’s Man of the Year issue. In it, he was interviewed by sports journalist and podcaster, Bill Simmons. Find below, some select quotes
On finding his feet as President
There’s no doubt that the longer I’m in this job, the more confident I am about the decisions I’m making and more knowledgeable about the responses I can expect. And as a consequence, you end up being looser. There’s not much I have not seen at this point, and I know what to expect, and I can anticipate more than I did before.
I [also] have a case to make now that was harder to make earlier in my presidency. We had confidence, for example, that the economic decisions that we made to stabilize the financial system and pass Wall Street reform and raise taxes on the wealthiest and pass health care—that would have a payoff. But because we had been in such a deep hole, we had to be careful about crowing success when people weren’t feeling it. And it wasn’t really until around 2014 where the attitude of the American people was, “The economy’s improving, I’m feeling better.”
You can make your case without caveats, which, I think, hampered my ability to communicate confidence and optimism to people. You didn’t want people to feel as if you were getting ahead of yourself. It’s a combination of me feeling looser because I’ve just been in this job a long time and have gone through some tough stretches. Not only do you not look like you have any fear, but you actually don’t have any fear. And I don’t at this point. The bets we made early on have paid off. Some of it does have to do with luck.
Think about 2013, right after I’d been re-elected: Our goal was to lead with a big push on immigration reform. And then, before the second inauguration has even happened, [the school shooting at] Sandy Hook happens. Which remains, by the way, the worst few days of my presidency. I went up and visited with those families and—you know, Bill, you’ve still got small kids. These are 6-year-olds, right? And you have 20 of them who’ve been massacred. Right away, our focus had to shift to “Is there a way for us to capture this moment to see if we can get over this incredible hump to try to put in place some common-sense gun-safety rules?” And we knew it was a stretch, just because of the politics of Congress and the NRA. But we had to try.
And throughout 2013 and 2014, you had a series of events like that—the Snowden disclosures, Ebola, Ferguson, ISIL, and unaccompanied children coming across the borders—all sort of stacked up in a row. None of them individually unsolvable, but given the 24/7 news cycle, they just sort of pile up on each other. Even though, in the midst of this, the economy is improving and we are making real progress on education and health care and energy and so forth, political momentum turns sharply against you. And so we’ve had more than our share of stormy seas, but we’ve navigated the ship well.
Has anyone come to the White House and picked up your older daughter for a date?
No, but I’ve seen some folks glancing at her in ways that made me not happy.
Tell the Secret Service, “Just take out that guy over there”?
“Just keep an eye on him.”
On Michelle being the next Oprah
[laughs] Uh…And if that’s what she wants to do, I’m okay with her making a whole lot of money. There’s nothing wrong with that.
On Game of Thrones
My favorite character is probably…the dwarf, what’s his name? The problem with Game of Thrones, though, is that I don’t remember the names of any of the characters.
I remember the characters, so when I watch it, I know exactly what’s going on. But if you read a review of the show afterwards and they’re mentioning such and such, the only one I remember is Jon Snow, because I can pronounce Jon Snow.
What he’ll miss most about being President?
So the clear answer would be Air Force One: an amazing plane with an amazing crew, they clear out airspace so you don’t have to wait. And you land anytime, you leave anytime. But it may be Marine One, because even post presidency, I may be able to round up a private plane sometime, but it’s tough not to have your helicopter waiting for you. [laughs]
On having teenage daughters
My daughters are amazing girls. They’re smart, they’re funny. They take after their mom, and Michelle’s done a great job with them. You get these teenage moments—they love you, but what I think really affects you most is they just don’t have time for you. It’s not an active disdain for you. It’s just their calendars start filling up and they’ve got all these friends who are much more interesting.
And you just have to let go, you have to acknowledge that if you say to them, “Hey, you want to go watch this movie?” or “Hey, you want to go take a swim at the pool?” “No, sorry, Daddy. I love you, though. See you tomorrow, ’cause I’m spending the night at somebody’s house.” The golden age is between, say, 6, 7, and 12, and they’re your buddies and they just want to hang out. And after that, they will love you, but they don’t have that much time for you. And my understanding is, based on friends of mine who have older kids, is that with a little bit of luck, as long as you’re not so completely annoying during these teenage years, they’ll come back to you around 23, 24, and actually want to hang out with you. But that stretch is painful. The compensation you get for the fact that they don’t have time for you is: Nothing beats watching your children become smarter and cooler than you are. And you suddenly will hear them say something or make a joke or have an insight and you go, “Wow. I didn’t think of that.”
Read the full interview conducted by sports journalist Bill Simmons on the U.S GQ website