Obama: I don’t worry about my safety

President Obama said Friday he does not worry much about his safety because of the “outstanding” Secret Service detail that shadows him everywhere he goes. 

Obama said the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago transformed the presidential security detail to a point where he hardly thinks about safety. 

“It’s not something I think about, mainly because we have a Secret Service that does an outstanding job every single day,” Obama told ABC News in an interview set to air next week. 

{mosads}For example, the open-air car Kennedy was riding in while shot in Dallas in 1963 has transformed into an armored limousine today. The service includes nearly 7,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.6 billion. 

“And, obviously, tragedy reshaped the Secret Service in many ways, but they do an outstanding job, and it’s thankfully not something I spend a lot of time worrying about,” he said. 

Obama mandated a national day of remembrance Friday in honor of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s death and ordered flags to fly at half-staff. Obama said he did not know of another person who had more of an impact on his generation than Kennedy. 

“And it’s been an incredible legacy, but JFK in particular, I think, captured the idealism, the ability to imagine and remake America to meets its ideals, in a way we haven’t seen before or since,” Obama said.

Obama attributed Kennedy’s influence partly to his youth and partly to of the timing of his presidency. 

“I think that partly because of his youth, partly, and his grace, partly because of his courage and his history in World War II, partly because of his eloquence and partly because of the time,” Obama said.