international background and an ambitious policy agenda, but it let at least some sleeping dogs lie. take gay marriage, for example. on gay marriage, there was a belief in the administration that if the president endorsed the idea that gay people should be allowed to marry, it would do much more harm than good, so keep the opposition calm and let the underlying demographics turn in your favor. then, this year, something changed and the president did come out in favor of gay marriage. on the deportation issue, this is what they looked like under the bush administration. they kept going up. when obama came into office, there were many who hoped the trend would reverse. instead, the opposite happened, president obama became the deportation president. he deported more people than any other president ever. history was made, whether you like it or not, is up to you. the administration thought that by ramping up deportations, it would gain enough political capital to get what it really wanted, comprehensive immigration reform or maybe even just the dream act. the administration was wrong.