Barack Obama forgot his phone and he's a real human just like you

The president of the United States has a pretty high bar to reach on a daily basis.

To Barack Obama's credit, the public perception he has cultivated is of a slick, professional and warm commander in chief who effortlessly took to the Oval Office.

So it's almost heartening to see a moment of vulnerability, of everydayism.

Which is what the media encountered last Friday when he turned 180 degrees from his course to Marine One and rushed back to his desk to retrieve something:

The official explanation, according to CBS News' White House correspondent Mark Knoller, from the principal deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz was:

He forgot something. He's human like the rest of us.

After last night's debate it's nice to be reminded of a little humanity, if we're honest.

So what did he forget?

Probably not his keys - it's unlikely a sitting president has ever been locked out of the White House.

According to a pool report, it was his mobile phone that president stopped to retrieve.

This isn't even the first time it's happened.

Oh Barack, you absent-minded scamp.

Picture: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

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