Vice to Obama on Withstanding Criticism: ‘How Do You Do It?’

SMITH: "How do you do it? How do you handle the controversy, the negativity? Why being pres -- are you a masochist?"

OBAMA: "(Laughs) You know, let me tell you. This is a fun job."

SMITH: "Right."

OBAMA: "Every day I wake up and I get a bird’s eye view on what's going on everywhere in the world. I can have as much of an impact on the things that are important to people as anybody on the planet. If you are applying yourself steadily every single day to the job and you are keeping your North Star, which is, when I leave this office I want things to be little bit better, then the day-to-day criticism, the chatter, the noise, is something that you end up blocking out. And the longer you are in the job the more you are likely to take a long view."