Syria, the NSA, and Rush Limbaugh: 6 highlights from Obama's CNN interview

[N]ow what we've got is Republicans talking about the idea that they would shut down the government…because after having taken 40 votes to try to get rid of ObamaCare, [they] see this as their last gasp.

Nobody thinks that's good for the middle class. And I've made this argument to my Republican friends privately, and, by the way, sometimes they say to me privately, "I agree with you, but I'm worried about a primary from, you know, somebody in the Tea Party back in my district," or, "I'm worried about what Rush Limbaugh is going to say about me on the radio." [CNN]

You know, the problem we've got right now is, is that on — when it comes to liberals, they've tended to say, "Let's just give more money to the system and increase student loans and grants and aid," and then, you know, you've got some on the right who've said, "Money doesn't matter, and young people should be able to figure it out on their own."

And what we're saying is, no, we should provide more help to young people. Government shouldn't be in the job of profiting from students who need to go to college. [CNN]

The notion that the U.S. can somehow solve what is a sectarian, complex problem inside of Syria sometimes is overstated.

You know, we're still spending tens of billions of dollars in Afghanistan. I will be ending that war by the end of 2014, but every time I go to Walter Reed and visit wounded troops, and every time I sign a letter for a casualty of that war, I'm reminded that there are costs and we have to take those into account as we try to work within an international framework to do everything we can to see Assad ousted — somebody who's lost credibility — and to try to restore a sense of a democratic process and stability inside of Syria. [CNN]

But there's no — there's no doubt that we can't return to business as usual, given what's happened. There was a space right after Mr. Morsi was removed in which we did a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of diplomatic work to try to encourage the military to move in a path of reconciliation. They did not take that opportunity. [CNN]

This latest revelation that was made, what was learned was that NSA had inadvertently, accidentally pulled the e-mails of some Americans in violation of their own rules, because of technical problems that they didn't realize. They presented those problems to the court. The court said, "This isn't going to cut it. You're going to have to improve the safeguards, given these technical problems." That's exactly what happened. So the point is, is that all these safeguards, checks, audits, oversight worked. [CNN]

Bo was getting lonely because [Sasha and Malia] are grown up. And they still have some responsibilities for him, but they're not always around between school, sports practice, all that stuff. And so Bo was getting a little down in the dumps inside the house.

Right now Michelle is in full parenting mode and really focused on getting Sunny to sit and catch. And, also there have been a couple accidents. [CNN]