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The First Couple made their first appearance together on the popular daytime talk show “The View” on Tuesday. Barack and Michelle Obama (pictured cemter) received a welcoming standing ovation by the studio audience, and as they greeted the five hosts (pictured left to right) of the talk show,  Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Beyhar, Sherri Shepherd and Elizabeth Hasselbeck, our President quipped that as the only male on the panel, he was “eye candy.”

SEE ALSO: ‘Mom In Chief’ Michelle Obama?

Holding a large basket that he brought for Walters who was celebrating her 83rd birthday, President Obama made the basket the brunt of a few jokes about Walters, stating that for her birthday, rather than having her “steal napkins” from the White House, he decided to bring White House keepsakes.

The basket contained knick-knacks, such as White House paper and cloth napkins, M&M candy with the White House logo, Marine One playing cards, and beer, among other goodies.

The presidential couple then began chatting with the panel about light topics, including their upcoming 20th-wedding anniversary on October 3, which is also the night of the first presidential debate with Republican candidate Mitt Romney.  Mr. Obama said he had wisely decided to celebrate his anniversary with his wife the following Saturday, “I like lavishing her with all kinds of attention when she deserves it — and she always deserves it,” the President said of his wife.

The devoted pair also talked about their first kiss when they began dating: it was outside of an ice cream shop as they sat on the curb eating cones. They also mentioned that there is now a marker with a plaque that reads, “On this site, President Barack Obama first kissed Michelle Obama,” with their picture and a quote from the president describing their first date in Chicago’s Hyde Park Shopping Center back in 1989.

Here are some other highlights from the interview: 

  • When Behar asked the First Lady when she gets to talk with her hubby about the day, Mrs. Obama said they catch up on the serious things after dinner, when the kids have gone for a walk.
  • When the First Lady was asked how her daughters handle any negative things people say about the President, Mrs. Obama said, “They’re pretty tough.”
  • When Hasselbeck, the show’s staunch conservative, asked if Obama’s administration is failing the middle class, the president responded, “Because of the actions we took, we’ve got an auto industry that’s back on top, [and] the question now for the American people is, how are we going to move forward?”
  • When Behar asked President Obama whether the attack in Libya, which led to the death of four American diplomats, constituted terrorism, the President said, “There’s no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn’t just a mob action. What’s clear is that, around the world, there are still a lot of threats out there.”
  • When Walters asked whether it would be disastrous for the country if Mitt Romney were elected, the president responded:”I think America is so strong and we’ve got so much going for us that we can survive a lot.  But the American people don’t want to just survive, we want everyone to thrive.  We want folks to have a shot at success, and so the question then just becomes, whose policies are more likely to lead us to where we want to go?””I’ll give you a very clear example. Yesterday Governor Romney on “60 Minutes” was asked, does he think it’s fair that he pays a lower tax rate than somebody who’s making $50,000 a year, and he said, ‘Yes, I think it’s fair and I also think that’s the way you get economic growth, the notion being that if people at the top have more income, they’ll invest and they’ll create jobs.'”I’ve just got a different vision about how we grow an economy. I think, Barbara, that you grow an economy from the middle out, not from the top down, and that when the teacher and the bus driver and the receptionist and the office manager — when they’ve got a little money in their pockets, when they’re doing well, then that means business has more customers, that business makes more profits, they hire more workers, and that’s been the history of our country: We grow fastest when the middle class is doing well and when folks who are trying to get into the middle class have ladders of opportunity. So that’s a different vision about how we move the country forward, and ultimately, it’s going to be up to the American people to make the decision about who’s got the better plan.”Watch President Obama talk about their differences in plans here:

  • When Walters asked if the First Lady would run for office, President Obama said that while she’d be “terrific,” her temperament may not be a fit. Mrs. Obama responded, “It takes a lot of patience to be the President of the United States and I’m not that patient. You know, I am not.”
  • Finally, after Walters asked the president, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?”  He responded, “Well, first things first here — we do have an election ahead and there are all kinds of things I want to do in a second term: putting folks back to work and making sure our schools are up to snuff. Walters then asked, “And then…,” with Obama responding, “And we’ve got another war to wrap up. In a post-presidency, the thing that I think I would enjoy most is spending time working with kids. I love teaching. I miss teaching, and I’m not sure necessarily it will be in a classroom, but the idea to be able to go around to various cities and help to create mentorships and apprenticeships and just giving young people the sense of possibility.”

President Obama is officially in New York City to speak to a gathering of world leaders Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly.