"Drawing from his thousands of pages of notes written while serving as Chief of Staff to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, John Lawrence has written a narrative documenting the years 2005 to 2010 from his insider perspective. These momentous years included debates over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the economic recession, the 2008 presidential election, the productive first two years of Barack Obama's presidency, as well as many key legislative products, such as TARP, the Affordable Care Act, and Wall Street Reform. Lawrence's fly-on-the-wall observations give readers a first-hand perspective of this significant period in political history. While other accounts provide insights into the battles that shaped the 2005-2010 period, nowhere else can a reader enter the room, listen in on the phone calls, and overhear the conversations of the key participants in real time"--