Obama’s Getting More Personal

President Obama has recently begun speaking more personally in public. He didn’t hesitate to use fatherly language when commenting on the case of Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teen who was killed by a vigilante last month. He spoke of his sick mother in the film, “The Road We’ve Traveled,” which officially launched his 2012 campaign on March 15. And he shared, in a campaign video, the worst moment of his life: When his second daughter Sasha came down with meningitis. He who seems to have had trouble sharing what he feels, in just a few weeks, has shown the public a more attractive side to his personality. Is this a personal revolution? Is this a pure calculation on his part, or is he aware that he must shed his armor and be friendly when the cold and less-loved Mitt Romney is probably going to become the Republican candidate?

Three recent developments have showed President Obama’s more personal side.

The Obamas, as parents, only rarely speak of their daughters and have asked the press to respect that silence. The change: In a campaign video picked up by Politico, we see him dining with his wife Michelle, making casual conversation and describing his worst memory. At three months old, his daughter Sasha was stricken with meningitis and he breaks down at the memory. Sharing his anguish with us — that’s new.

We also discovered Obama in his campaign film speaking of the throat cancer of his mother, Ann Dunham, and her lack of financial resources to be insured and to fight against the illness. This disclosure is meant to bolster his defense of health care reform and the “A.C.A.” (Affordable Care Act), which he passed into law in 2010. But it’s also a secret.

This week, in discussing Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a vigilante in Florida and whose death is widely viewed as a racial hate crime that has provoked demonstrations in Washington, Obama spoke out — a rare occurrence for this type of event — and his words were the emotional words of a father and family man: “If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon.” Bringing Trayvon’s death into his family history. And appropriating it to make people understand that it’s against him that this crime has been committed. A very personal way to say: That’s my son who was killed. Not just some teenager of my race in Florida.

Thus, it’s a more human Obama who emerges at a time when Romney and his numerous family members are occupying the media field, with his five sons, his beautiful daughters and his grandchildren. Obama speaks to an America that loves images of an abundant family, like the Kennedys. Obama is able to move gradually, using symbolic moments. Above all, he remains consistent with his reserved personality.