Obama Is Too Busy to Think About Sarah Palin

With his party's midterm election upset barely in his rearview mirror, President Obama is already being pitted against his potential re-election adversary by pundits and journalists alike.

In a sit-down interview Tuesday, Barbara Walters asked the president about recent comments by Sarah Palin that if she ran for president, she could beat Mr. Obama.

At first, the president demurred, saying he refused to speculate on what will happen two years out. When Walters pressed, the president revealed, "What I'm saying is, I don't think about Sarah Palin."

The former Alaska Governor and 2008 running mate for GOP nominee John McCain has saturated the airwaves of news and entertainment outlets alike in recent weeks. While she has not officially said whether or not she'll run for president in 2012, she's certainly opened the door.

It's not as if the president discounts her political prowess, "Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills," he said.

Still, he says he is focused on his job at hand. "[M]y attitude has always been, from the day I started this job that if I do a good job and if I'm delivering for the American people the politics will take care of itself," he told Walters.

He admits, "If I falter and the American people are dissatisfied, then I'll have problems."