President, Michelle Obama on Making Tough Decisions

Visions of sugar plums may be dancing in heads of children across the country, but with the weight of the world on their shoulders, what issues keep the president of the united states up at night?... See More

Visions of sugar plums may be dancing in heads of children across the country, but with the weight of the world on their shoulders, what issues keep the president of the united states up at night? We'll return now to the white house christmas, where abc's barbara walters continues her very personal interview at home with the first couple. So much goes on in both of your lives. What keeps you up at night if there are times? Stuff keeps me up at night all the time. But the one good thing is i generally work hard enough during the day. By the time my head hits the pillow, most of the time I fall right to sleep. There are certain moments the night before the bin laden raid. There are going to be certain moments where you're amped up. But for thet part, I don't have trouble sleeping. I have trouble waking up sometimes. You know, mrs. Obama, you told me at one point that you would never run for political office. You've said that you don't have the patience for political life. Patience for what? I have learned from my husband watching him that it does require a great deal of patience to really feel the full impact of the work that you do on the ground. It doesn't happen right away. And she has a bigger difficulty biting her tongue. I think I've done pretty well at that. Not bad. Was there a time when you went shh? Are you kidding? We've been married for 20 years, you think I'm going to go shh to my wife? Yeah, I've never heard shh come out of his mouth. Yeah. But the point is privately, there may be -- I have opinions. She's got afew. You know a little something about views. Yes. Something about views. Yes, I do. You have an ipad. I do. What's your favorite app? Scrabble. Oh, yes. Gosh. Sometimes I want to yank that out of your hands. Do you ever play scrabble together? No, no. Well, we do on the board, not on the ipad. Who wins? He's good at scrabble. She's very irrit-- he's very irritating researcher she doesn't like losing. I don't like losing to you because you're irritating when you win. What is your favorite presidential perk? Well -- the plane? Yeah. I mean, look, it has been a while since I flew commercial. But I remember it because I used to have to commute every week from d.C. To chicago. And not having to take off your shoes before you get on a plane is probably a pretty good luxury. And obviously you're never late for flights because generally the plane doesn't take off without you. Generally. Me, on the other hand, I could get left. They're not leaving him. Finally, I asked the president and first lady a question that I've asked during each of our special holiday interviews about their high points and low points. Again, all of this before the president ordered the flags flown at half staff after connecticut shooting. You know, you've talked about sitting with the girls at night and talk about the rose and the thorn. Can you think of what the rose was and what the thorn was? For me personally, the thorn is always knowing that as commander in chief, I've put men and women of armed services in harm's way, and some of them we had killed and some of them get injured. And that always weighs on me. That is as raw and as fresh now as it was the first month I took office. The rose for me, other than family, was being back on the campaign trail and having this incredible opportunity to reconnect with the american people. In some ways, the election was sort of the icing on the cake. A lot of icing. Yeah.