Vance then asked about the future. With everything that is going on in the country and across the world, why is the president going after four more years?

“First of all, I just enjoy the job. I enjoy the challenge of it. It’s interesting. You deal with extraordinary people every day. … You meet people, you’re engaged in issues that are vital to the United States,” Obama said. “I love this country, and the more I see it the more I know that we’ve got so much more potential than we’re realizing right now. All those young men you were talking about who were unemployed here in Washington … all that energy could be unleashed, but it can’t be unleashed if the country is constantly divided and the political parties are constantly worried about positioning themselves for the next election rather than solving problems. I believe that I’ve got a role to play — an important role to play — in helping unleash that potential.

So the upside of being president is better than the downside?

“Almost every day,” Obama said. “There are days when you come up from the Oval Office and you say, ‘What the heck is going on here?’, but that’s true in any job. … I consider myself extraordinarily lucky and blessed and if the American people think that I’m the person to do the job, then I’m happy to continue to do it.”