As soon as Air Force One took off, I felt a sense of relief. We’d been through two years of the campaign, then two years in the White House. We’d proved to ourselves that we belonged, suffered a drubbing in the midterms, and then bounced back—ramming the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the ratification of the New START treaty through Congress. Gay people could now serve openly in the military, and the United States and Russia would be pointing fewer nuclear weapons at each other. We had learned that a White House on its back foot can still accomplish more than just about any other
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