Tearful Obama Thanks Campaign Staffs For a Job Well Done

Tearful Obama Thanked His Campaign Staffs For a Job Well Don

Just a day after he won another term, an emotional President Barack Obama recognized his youthful staff of several hundred with managing a campaign that will "go on in the annals of history."

"What you guys have accomplished will go on in the annals of history and they will read about it and they'll marvel about it," said Obama told his team Wednesday morning inside the Chicago campaign headquarters, tears streaming down his face.

"The most important thing you need to know is that your journey's just beginning. You're just starting. And whatever good we do over the next four years will pale in comparison to whatever you guys end up accomplishing in the years and years to come," he added.

The moment offers a rare glimpse at the president being carried away and emotional as Obama campaign's cameras captured every bit of it and posted it online. During the first four years of his presidency, Obama has never been seen publicly crying.

When he first came to Chicago, he told the campaign staff, "knowing that somehow I wanted to make sure that my life attached itself to helping kids get a great education or helping people living in poverty to get decent jobs and be able to work and have dignity. And to make sure that people didn't have to go to the emergency room to get health care."

"So when I come here and I look at all of you, what comes to mind is, it's not that you guys remind me of myself, it's the fact that you are so much better than I was in so many ways. You're smarter, you're so better organized, you're more effective," he said.

Obama said he expected many of those who helped to re-elect him will assume new roles in progressive politics, calling that prospect a "source of my strength and inspiration."

Posted by James Fried on Saturday November 10 2012, 4:23 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0