Almost everybody who comes into contact with a president is hungry for something—sometimes nothing more than an acknowledgment, or simply to be put at ease, but most of all to be heard. There was no escaping that for Barack, and it could be draining. “Why do they need so much attention?” he complained to me one day after a congressional delegation left the office. “They constantly have to be reinforced.” He knew the answer without my telling him, but he was frustrated by the amount of time and energy it took. And he was happy to have me there to carry some of that load.
