President Obama's admission to being in a perpetual campaign mode?

On December 18th the President did a softball interview with NPR. While reading the transcript I came across an admission which I thought was an interesting testimony to his philosophy on governance. 

"Now you've got Republicans in a position where it's not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me. They are going to be in a position in which they have to show that they can responsibly govern, given that they have significant majorities in both chambers. And, you know, what I've said repeatedly is that I want to work with them; I want to get things done. I don't have another election to run."

More often than not the POTUS has been criticized for being in a perpetual campaign mode rather than actually governing. In his own words, he seems to have indicated that these criticisms have an air of legitimacy to them.