Best of Barack Obama on The Ellen Show

[MUSIC PLAYING] Is there really a book of secrets? That's a secret. Yeah.

[LAUGHTER] So I heard that you carry a charm or something on your person. Yeah, I have a bunch of charms that I put in my pocket. People give you things.

Yeah, they give me things. This dates back to the campaign trail. They'd hand you stuff.

And I started getting this big collection of little charms, crosses or lucky coins. And you keep a different one in-- Yeah, I'll just put a bunch in my pocket. I have something to give you then.

You do? OK, what do you got? Let's see.

It's a charm. And it's my picture and your picture. Oh.

[LAUGHTER] That is-- look at that. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] Yeah. That's for you.

I will treasure this. This is so sweet. Yeah.

So that's for you to keep at all times. I will. All right.

OK. And then I have a surprise for you because it's Valentine's Day, right? Yeah.

So we have a surprise for you. Take a look. Surprise.

Hi, honey. And hi, Barack. I just wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day.

It's our last one that we'll spin in the White House. And in honor of that, I wrote you a little Valentine's Day poem that I wanted to share. [CLEARS THROAT] Roses are red.

Violets are blue. You are the president, and I am your boo. [CHEERING] I wrote that while I was doing 100 push ups this morning.

It gets the creative juices flowing. You should try it, Ellen. [LAUGHTER] No really, you're the only person I'd share my husband with on Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day to you and Portia. And happy Valentine's Day to everyone. And Barack, I know there's a See's Candy out there, so bring me something chocolatey back.

You know what you need to do. Love to you both. Bye bye.

[CHEERING] That's so sweet. Isn't that sweet? That was very sweet.

Yes. That was very sweet. Yeah.

So I thought I would help you out because you didn't know she was going to do that. I didn't. So I set up a little setting.

[LAUGHTER] I've got something prepared. Wow. All right.

Well then, I have a setting for you. I was going to deliver it to her in person, but we can do it on the set. All right.

Come on. All right. Come on.

[CHEERING] All right. All right. So you'll stand there.

So I'm going to stand here with the rose petals. I'm going to set the mood. Yeah.

OK. All right. Is this good?

Yeah. All right. [MUSIC PLAYING] [LAUGHTER] Somebody called the Situation Room because things are about to get hot.

[CHEERING] Michelle, this Valentine's Day, I'm going to treat you right. I'm going to make you some zucchini bread. Then I'll spread out some veggies on a plate just the way you like them.

Then I'm going to give you a massage while you watch Ellen's Design Challenge on HGTV? [LAUGHTER] Because I love you so much, I Obamacare about you more than you even know. [LAUGHTER] That's right, Obamacare.

But Michelle, I've made a lot of great decisions as president. The best decision I ever made was choosing you. Thanks for putting up with me.

I love you. And Ellen, happy Valentine's Day. We'll be right back.

We have a little presidential expert. And she has never met a president before. And her name is Macey Hensley.

And I'd like you to meet her. All right. I want to meet her.

Macey, come on out. [MUSIC PLAYING] [CHEERING] How you doing, Macey? Good.

You look great. Thanks. You're welcome.

Can you believe it? No. I mean, when I told you you were going to meet the president, you were like, I can't believe it.

You know so much about presidents. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you know just about-- tell me something about Roosevelt. Which one? Oh.

[LAUGHTER] I'm just saying she has a good point. Whichever one you want to tell me about. How about Theodore?

All right. So he-- after his mom and grandma died, he went off to be a cowboy. Did you know that?

I got to say, Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorite presidents. So he lived a pretty exciting life, didn't he? So you have questions for the president.

This is a big moment. You can-- whatever you want to ask. What's your first question?

So is there really a book of secrets? That's a secret. Yeah.

[LAUGHTER] Yeah. Yeah. What kind of secrets would you want to know?

What would be in the book of secrets? If aliens are real. Ah.

Well, what do you think? Well, after watching this TV show, I think aliens are probably real. Golly.

OK. Well-- Which TV show was that? I think it's called America's Book of Secrets.

[LAUGHTER] There you go. Well, it seems like somebody spilled the secrets already. [LAUGHTER] I thought that was classified.

But it's the book of secrets, and yet, there's a TV show. Yeah. Well, the truth is, Macey, we haven't actually made direct contact with aliens yet.

But when we do, I'll let you know. All right. Yeah.

OK. Yeah. What else?

So do your dogs even have to have Secret Service? [LAUGHTER] No. Bo and Sunny, they're on their own.

But usually, we don't let them out of the White House, unless they're with us. So yeah, they're protected. And are you still using the Ellen dog bowls?

The Ellen dog bowls are somewhere. [LAUGHTER] I'm sorry, but-- [LAUGHTER] Yeah, Bo and Sunny, they-- Give me my charm back. [LAUGHTER] They had their favorite bowls, and it turns out they weren't the Ellen bowls.

Oh. But I like Ellen, though. All right.

And sometimes I use the Ellen bowls for-- [LAUGHTER] You just can't even get yourself out of that. --oatmeal or something. [LAUGHTER] All right.

If you have more questions, we're going to have to ask him after the show because the show is over. But is there any one last question you want to ask him? No.

[LAUGHTER] I wish you were a reporter because that would be great. If I had a press conference and I'd say any more questions, they'd said no. That would be great.

I brought something for you though because you are such a presidential expert. Come here. So this is the presidential seal.

See? And so wherever the president goes, he always has the seal. And I signed it on the back.

So in case you become president, you will already have one. You don't even have to get a new one. You'll be all set.

Thank you. You're welcome. Love you.

You're so smart. Our first guest could make history by becoming the first African-American president of the United States. It's an honor to welcome Senator Barack Obama.

[MUSIC PLAYING] OK. You're the best dancer so far, the presidential candidate. It's a low bar.

It is a low bar. But I'm pretty sure I've got better moves than Giuliani. Yeah.

Yeah. You definitely do. We've asked our viewers to submit some questions for the senator online.

And we picked some. And we thought it would be fun for the senator and to talk to them directly. They have no idea-- we said if you could, what questions-- and they think we're just going to do it online.

But I am going to call them. Let's talk. And we're going to-- now, you said I have a hard job.

And I do. And one of the hardest jobs, I'll tell you, is dialing while I'm talking because it's really hard. So don't ever put yourself in that situation.

Or at least, just have somebody do it for you. You're doing good. Well, I've made it through.

But now we're calling Makita Johnson from Richmond, Virginia. This is really exciting. I know.

She has no idea. [PHONE RINGING] I hope she's there. Hello?

Hey. Is this Makita? Yes, this is her.

Hi, Makita. This is Ellen DeGeneres. How are you doing?

Oh, my god. Hey. Wait.

Oh. It gets even better. Hold on.

OK. Introduce yourself. Hi, Makita.

This is Barack Obama. How are you? Wait.

No. Yes. No.

Yes. Oh, my god. Yes.

Oh, my god. Makita, I hear you had a question for me. We wanted to call up and answer it personally.

[LAUGHS] OK. This is good. What's your question?

My question is I know being a senator is a very time-consuming job. And because it's so time consuming, you don't get much time for your family. And as president, how will you divide your time for your family and time for running our country?

Well, it's a wonderful question. And I know you know my wife, Michelle, is just terrific. And my kids are, of course, spectacular.

Yes. Yes, Malia and Sasha. And the hardest thing about running for president is being away from the family so much.

But one of the things Michelle and I talked about before we even started to run was, how do we make sure that our girls are good? And what we've tried to do is create a real protective situation for them. We didn't move from Chicago.

They're there going to the same school with the same friends and really try to be as normal as possible. And the nice thing about if I'm president, I hear that they give you public housing. There's this-- --big house.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll all be under the same roof.

And hopefully, I can do my job and tuck them in every night, and read to them, and do all the things that dads do. That's great. But one thing Michelle is absolutely clear about is if I can't do a good job as father, then it's pretty hard to talk about families and how I can do a good job for the country as well.

OK. All right? All right.

Makita, thank you so much. Thank you, Makita. You're welcome.

I appreciate it. Bye. That's a good question.

There's something important I have to do right now. I have a friend named Michelle. And she's out of town this week.

And she had to leave her husband alone. And she wasn't sure how he was going to handle being alone, so she gave me a list of questions and asked me if I would check on him and see if he's doing these things. Let's see if he's there.

Michelle's husband, are you there? I am here. [CHEERING] Hi.

Mr President, Michelle said she's out of town. And she wanted to know, did you make your bed this morning? That would be no.

No? And when she's out of town, things get a little slovenly around the house, socks everywhere, shoes. Have you eaten today?

And are you taking care of yourself? Did you exercise? I did exercise.

I did eat. And I ate healthy. And I had some carrot sticks along with the potato chips.

OK, good. It balances out. OK.

And you took your vitamins, and you're all set for dinner and all that, right? I'm all set. All right.

Good. Those are my questions that I had to ask. So this is-- Malia is going off to college.

And that's got to be-- That's hard. Yes. Yeah.

That's got to be-- Look, as Michelle reminds me, our job is to prepare them not to need us. And both my daughters are wonderful people. And Malia is more than ready to leave.

But I'm not ready for her to leave. And I was asked if I would speak at her graduation. I said absolutely not because I'm going to be sitting there with dark glasses sobbing.

Yeah, she's one of my best friends. And it's going to be hard for me not to have her around all the time. But she's ready to go.

You can tell. She's just a really smart, capable person. And she's ready to make her own way.

And they're wonderful girls. Michelle gets all the credit, maybe an assist from my mother-in-law. But they really are just solid kids.

They don't have an attitude. They're courteous and kind to everybody. Yeah, they work hard.

They don't feel like they're entitled to anything. Well, they have great parents. Both you and Michelle are really, really amazing.

Michelle is such a strong, wonderful role model for all women. And she has been a great first lady. I agree.

That, I agree with. [CHEERING] All right. We have to take another break.

That is indisputable. Yeah. Yeah.

And you have been a great president. And like you said, people can say things over, and over, and over again about unemployment, or the economy, or anything else. But if you really-- if you listen to that, you're going to believe it.

If you look at and look into it and see what the facts are, it's just not the truth. We're better off now than we were when I came in. There's no doubt.

You've done an amazing job.