Perks of running for President

WASHINGTON (AP) - February 12, 2008

Democrat Obama told People magazine that it's gotten a lot easier to get dinner reservations to treat his wife and he can even get Hannah Montana tickets for his daughters without having to camp out overnight.

"I was able to get them tickets already, which raised me tremendously in their eyes," Obama said in an interview that reaches newsstands Friday.

He said the worst part of running are that he's lost his anonymity and can no longer do things like take 9-year-old Malia and 6-year-old Sasha for a casual visit to the zoo. And disguises don't really work, he said, because of a distinguishing characteristic.

"A baseball cap and dressing down in jeans and an overcoat works if I move fast enough. The problem is my ears are pretty prominent," Obama said.

He said he last used the dinner reservation perk in Las Vegas last month for his wife Michelle's 44th birthday, when he also splurged on a necklace. He didn't say what it was made of, except to allow that, "It wasn't fake."

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