The Romneys and Obamas Get Personal With Oprah

William Thomas Cain/Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Voters will either elect a master painter or expert snow shoveler to the White House come November.

“I’ve painted rooms, stained floors. Oftentimes I don’t even need to put down a drop cloth,” Mitt Romney told Oprah Winfrey in a sit-down interview for an upcoming issue of her magazine. “I’m good enough at it.”

And though it’s been quite some time since Obama has had household chores, he has a knack for shoveling snow.

“You try chipping some ice off some windshields when it’s five below at six in the morning,” he said from their interview in the White House.

The comments come as both Romney and his wife, Ann, as well as Obama and first lady Michelle Obama get personal with the queen of media for the first time this presidential cycle.

The contenders dished on favorite foods (pizza for the president, Ann Romney’s meatloaf cakes for the former governor), their visions for the world, and just one thing they like about each other.

“I really like the healthcare bill that he passed in Massachusetts. It was great,” Obama said.

For Romney, it was the Osama Bin Laden raid: “Well, I’m glad he got Osama bin Laden, that’s one.  A man’s been in office three and a half years, he does hundreds of things,” he said. “I’m sure there are a few that are fine.”

The full interviews will be available on Oct. 9 when O, The Oprah Magazine hits the newsstands.

In it, Ann Romney says she laughed off the controversy that erupted after Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen suggested that as a stay-at-home-mom she “never worked a day in her life.”

“Frankly, it was rather humorous to me,” Romney said, according to excerpts. “Because it was like, maybe she should visit my house once and see what it’s like. Raising children is the hardest job that there is on the face of the Earth.  There’s no question about it and I think that Mitt would agree.”

Here are some more tidbits from the interview:

On their visions for the world:

• Barack Obama: Michelle accuses me of being a congenital optimist, but it’s true.  I think people are capable of great evil but are fundamentally good.  I want America to continue to be on the side of expanding justice and freedom and opportunity.
• Mitt Romney: More liberty.  More freedom.  Opportunity.  And hope.

On how the president draws joy from his family:

• Barack Obama: I already loved [my family] so much, but when you’re under all of these pressures, to come home every single night – at least when I’m in town – and have Michelle and the girls there… They are my balance and keep me grounded, and that’s truer now than it’s ever been.

On what Mitt Romney wanted to be when he was growing up:

• Mitt Romney: I never imagined being the president in my youth.  As a little boy, I wanted to be a policeman.

On what they have to say to their critics:

• Barack Obama: To my critics I say, I’m not done yet.
• Mitt Romney: Just you wait and see.

On not sweating the small stuff:

• Michelle Obama: I might want to talk to him about an issue I have with what he said the other day, but you know what, it’s not really that important.  I’m stockpiling a list of issues that I’d like to discuss with him in 2016 though.

Favorite Song:

• Barack Obama: Anything by Stevie Wonder.  ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing,’ because I can sing the whole thing verbatim.
• Mitt Romney: Roy Orbison.  ‘In Dreams,’ ‘Pretty Woman,’ ‘Crying.’

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio