'Not Going To See This Again': Obama's Poignant Pause To Look Back At Crowd

By Mark Memmott

Published January 21, 2013 at 1:23 PM CST

As he walked up the steps and back into the Capitol today following his inaugural address, President Obama paused and turned around to look back.

"I want to take a look," he could be heard saying, because "I'm not going to see this again."

And for nearly 20 seconds, as Vice President Biden, members of Congress and others passed by, the president of the United States stood in place; looking back.

It was a sight — the hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall — that only presidents can appreciate in the way Obama seemed to be. The C-SPAN video, posted here by TPM, captures the unique moment.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott