President Obama is running for reelection because he feels the "higher calling" of the office, even though it's obvious he doesn't really love the political game, MSNBC's Alex Wagner told Conan O'Brien on his October 17 TBS program. By contrast, Gov. Mitt Romney is running simply because "it seems like the next thing he should be doing with his life."
Wagner made these comments after O'Brien observed that while Bill Clinton quite obviously loves hitting the campaign trail and stumping as a surrogate for Obama, it seems that the president himself would rather be doing something else than campaigning. [MP3 audio here; watch the video below the page break]
Wagner also said that both Romney and Obama remind her of bosses, but that Obama is the boss you'd shoot the breeze with at the water cooler while Romney is the boss who would ask "shouldn't you be at your desk?"
