Obama: Complaints About Date Night "Annoyed" Me

In an interview with the New York Times Magazine for a story on "The First Marriage," Mr. Obama said it "annoyed" him that he was criticized for flying to New York last spring to see a Broadway play and have dinner with his wife. Critics complained that the president was using public money to pay for the trip.

"If I weren't president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no muss and no photographers," he said. "That would please me greatly."

"The notion that I just couldn't take my wife out on a date without it being a political issue was not something I was happy with," he added, later echoing a reporter's comment that "everything becomes political" in the White House.

Presidents always travel in secure government vehicles or aircraft for both personal and political travel.

"What I value most about my marriage is that it is separate and apart from a lot of the silliness of Washington, and Michelle is not part of that silliness," Mr. Obama said.

"This is the first time in a long time in our marriage that we've lived seven days a week in the same household with the same schedule, with the same set of rituals," the first lady said of White House life. "That's been more of a relief for me than I would have ever imagined."

Still, she acknowledged that "the bumps happen to everybody all the time, and they are continuous."

Asked how it's possible to have an equal relationship when one member of a couple is president, Mr. Obama struggled to answer and the first lady stepped in.

"Clearly Barack's career decisions are leading us," she said. "They're not mine; that's obvious. I'm married to the president of the United States. I don't have another job, and it would be problematic in this role. So that — you can't even measure that."

The first lady said she did not want to project the image of a relationship that never runs into problems.

"It's unfair to the institution of marriage, and it's unfair for young people who are trying to build something, to project this perfection that doesn't exist," she said.