On February 2, 2009, just thirteen days into his presidency,
Barack Obama finished a meeting in the Oval Office with Jim Douglas about the
nation’s economic recovery efforts. As photographers prepared to leave the
room, Obama noticed something out of place: the sofas had been shifted to make
room for the press setup and had not yet been returned. Instead of stepping
away and waiting for staff to handle it, Obama simply walked over, grabbed one
end of a sofa, and asked Douglas to help move it back.
White House photographer Pete Souza captured the moment, and
the photograph quickly became one of the most widely shared images from the
early Obama years and still speaks volumes about the kind of human Barack Obama
has always been. |