Wow. Yes, very moving indeed. Thanks, Lox, for the insight into the conditions at the fortress even in its present state.

Agreed that this is a poignant reminder of the reasons that Obama was the best choice in the 2008 election. Could you imagine John McCain speaking s eloquently about that tour? Noooo, he would have been making comparisons to his imprisonment as a POW and indulging in self-aggrandizementthrough his clenched teeth. (...and Lord help us if it had been Sarah Palin on that podium!)

Even so, I can see why he's known as No-Drama Obama. Such a tour would leave most of us struggling to speak through the trembling of our voices, but Obama looks just as calm, cool and collected as usual in the video. An incredibly disciplined man.

I find it interesting that, in the YouTube clip, we see Obama moving his head back and forth in much the same way he does when reading from a teleprompter (from head position A to head position B to A to B to A, etc.). Yet he was speaking extemporaneously, was he not? Guess I'll have to try to cut him some slack next time I watch him read from a teleprompter, if it's just a (bad) habit of his to move his head so mechanically...