As President of the United states, surrounded by Secret Service all the time, Barack Obama says he misses going for walks and taking his kids out to buy ice cream, acknowledging that it is very hard to experience now the 'profound pleasure' of being anonymous.
"Taking walks. There is a value to anonymity in terms of just being able to wander around, sit on a park bench, take your kids to get ice cream without having Secret Service and helicopters over you," Obama said in an interview to the Israeli television when asked what he misses the most as the US President.
"That part of this life I'll never get used to," he acknowledged.
Recalling his first visit to Jerusalem, the US President said he could wander through the old city and haggle for some gifts to bring back to wife Michelle or stand at the Wailing Wall, as people did not know who he was.
"And that is a profound pleasure that is very hard to experience now."
About his job, Obama said, "I do think that there have been moments in the presidency when I'm making a decision about deploying young men and women into the battlefield, or we're making very consequential decisions about the world economy, where the answers are not always a hundred per cent obvious, and you're making judgment calls -- and it's during those moments where you are reminded that you can't behave like a politician."
"You can't put your finger out to the wind, you can't base your actions on polls. You have to make a decision on what you think is right, and then let history judge how you did," said the US President.
Image: Reuters
