Smash hit

Confirmation hearings are a ritual of American politics that often cause problems. Obama lost a lot of potential appointees to various financial irregularities early in his presidency. Tom Daschle was probably the most significant, for two reasons. First, he was very close to Obama and shared the same notion of health care reform. Now health care reform has fractured as nobody quite has responsibility. The White House has tried to take over but there are other power centres in the departments and on Capitol Hill. This is a direct result of the loss of Daschle. Second, health care reform was crucial to the identity of the Obama presidency. It is a touchstone issue for the Democrat party and Obama made a large promise to reform that he will have to redeem. Phil Collins

7 The million-dollar date in New York (May 30, 2009)

When Barack and Michelle Obama went to the theatre and then to dinner in New York, they did something that is a telling part of the way that modern politics intersects with the cult of celebrity. It was, after all, just a visit to the theatre and some dinner. But the whole panoply of celebrity was rolled out to turn it into a big event. This is the sort of thing that a President can do when he is popular — but when the polls turn the very same event would be seen as self-indulgent, especially as it was paid for by the taxpayer. Phil Collins

8 The glare at Joe Biden’s gaffe (January 21, 2009)

Just days after Obama’s Inauguration swearing-in had been partially bungled by a nervous John Roberts, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Joe Biden, the Vice-President, made a quip about it before the cameras. Obama, standing next to him, looks furious — a rare loss of cool — and glares in his direction, while touching his shoulder as if to say: “Stop it now.” A new book has now revealed how distracted Obama has been about Biden’s gaffes and verbosity. Indeed, the book claims, he rebuked him strongly after one incident inside the White House. Tim Reid

9 The handshake outside No 10 (April 2, 2009)

When Barack Obama entered Downing Street to meet Gordon Brown in April, he paused on the threshold, said something polite, grinned, and shook hands with the policeman on guard at the door. There is always a policeman guarding the door at No 10. No one has ever shaken hands with him before. Let alone the President of the United States. The policeman looked mildly thunderstruck, then thrilled.

It was an inspired gesture, a visible sign that this president does not stand on his dignity. It was more remarkable for being, apparently, entirely unrehearsed, and it made the sort of photograph that Obama seems to be able to produce instinctively: a symbol of old Britain, a bobby in his helmet, being greeted by the new power in the world.

Gordon Brown followed Obama into the building. For a moment it seemed that he, too, might shake hands with the policeman. But he did not. Mr Brown does not do spontaneous things like that. And that, perhaps, says it all. Ben Macintyre

10 The dance at the inauguration ball (January 20, 2009)

The relationship between President and First Lady will be one of the defining elements of the Obama Administration. The Bush marriage was a formal, undemonstrative affair. The Clinton marriage was a soap opera. The Obamas have clearly made the decision to invite the public to see how they interact with one another. Barely a public address passes, by either of them, without statement of affection for one another. The photographs of the Obamas dancing at the end of the inauguration festivities seemed to capture this: they are exhausted, elated, and astonishingly intimate. They are aware of the public eye upon them, but entirely caught up in on another. Ben Macintyre

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