Time for an admission.

It is that I can be a sap. I tend to blubber. I’ve teared up at films that I know to be fiction, scripted, performances done by actors who are pretending to evoke emotion. My family knows this about me; so do my closest friends.

So it was tonight when President Barack Obama turned to his wife near the end of his highly publicized farewell speech to the nation and said, “Michelle.”

The crowd stood. It cheered loudly. Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, clapped vigorously. Michelle and Barack Obama’s older daughter, Malia, began wiping away tears.

The president called Michelle “my best friend.” More tears.

The president then wiped a tear from his own eyes with a handkerchief. He had trouble holding it together.

And there I was , way out here in Texas, swallowing hard as I watched the emotion flowing from the TV screen before me.

Here’s the deal. These folks weren’t acting. It was real. It’s the kind of real-life drama I get a sort of perverse joy in watching. It demonstrates that even the most powerful, influential and high-profile folks among us are filled with real human emotion.

As is this sap.