With his public speeches, soaring oratory and all-business public persona, it’s easy to think of Barack Obama— or any president, for that matter — as a mythic figure of sorts. Generally, a nation’s leader is detached in our minds from personal relationships, quiet intimate moments and the unscripted, un-calculated interactions that make the rest of us human.
The video above blows that notion away, at least for five minutes.
Posted to the Obama team’s official YouTube account Thursday, it shows the president stripped of the gloss and booming delivery, thanking a room full of campaign workers for a successful 2012 run. He relates their work to his own early days in politics, lauds their ability and thanks them for having “lifted me up each and every step of the way.”
At around the 3:30 mark, Obama’s voice chokes up and he wipes away a couple full-on tears that begin to trickle down his face. It’s a pretty incredible moment to see from a president and — no matter what your politics — humanizes him in a way no number of viral Twitter pictures ever could.
