When you`re Prez, everyone takes your calls: Barack Obama

Washington: The coolest thing about being the leader of the free world? Everyone will take your call, said US President Barack Obama in a television interview on Tuesday.

Obama did another round of interviews with local television anchors to talk about the threat of a Thursday deadline to raise the debt limit, and the impact of a 15-day government shutdown. But Diana Williams of New York`s WABC television said her teenage daughter wanted her to ask Obama whether the coolest thing about being President was being friends with entertainment power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z. "That is a view shared by Malia and Sasha," Obama chuckled, referring to his two daughters. Beyonce and Jay-Z raised money for Obama during his campaign, and Beyonce performed the national anthem at his 2013 inauguration. "For me, I think the coolest thing is that if there is somebody interesting who`s doing anything - a scientist, a sports figure, a writer, anybody in the world - if I want to call them up ... they will answer my phone call. That`s a pretty cool thing," Obama said. During the past several months, Obama has welcomed to the White House a host of "cool" people, including the Baltimore Ravens, the current National Football League champions, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, singer-songwriter Carole King, and author Joan Didion. On Friday, he and first lady Michelle Obama met with Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai in the Oval Office - a private meeting that daughter Malia also joined.