There’s a moment in David Axelrod’s Believer that quietly distills the heights and horrors of President Barack Obama’s first two years in office—an unusually eventful introduction to executive power in Washington, whose legacy is sure to be debated, assessed, and litigated (both figuratively and literally) for years to come.

This tiny epiphany comes just before the midterm elections of 2010—which were to swiftly dispatch the dream of transformational change that longtime Obama confidants such as Axelrod had made the centerpiece of their candidate’s successful 2008 presidential run. Axelrod,