:44:00
Yeah, it is.
:44:01
Tell me how my personal life--
:44:03
Because when it's the President,
it's not personal.
:44:06
I hired your reputation.
I hired a pit bull, not a prom queen.
:44:10
That's unfair.
:44:11
It's incredibly unfair.
:44:14
You've told me many times that...
:44:16
...the trouble with the environmental lobby
is that we don't understand...
:44:19
...the fundamental truth
that politics is perception.
:44:22
It's a bad time to develop ignorance.
:44:24
- You're making way too much of this.
- Am I?
:44:27
This is your time, Sydney.
You're sitting at the grown-up's table.
:44:31
You could get everything you want:
:44:34
Run a national campaign,
be a major player inside the party.
:44:38
But go all the way, because with the leader
of the free world, there's no halfway.
:44:44
Politics is perception...
:44:46
...and if this doesn't work out, the time
it'll take you to go from being a hired gun...
:44:50
...to a cocktail party joke
can be clocked with an egg timer.
:44:54
There's no relationship.
It was one night. It's done.
:44:58
This was just delivered by a White House
messenger. It's marked "perishable."
:45:02
The White House sent me
something perishable?
:45:05
It's for Ms.Wade.
:45:06
Here we go.
:45:07
Relax, Leo, I'm sure it's just a formality.
:45:10
- It's from him.
- Of course, it's from him.
:45:13
He had some staff flunky
send me a fruit basket.
:45:16
He wrote the note himself.
:45:17
I'm sure he didn't take the time--
:45:19
The messenger waited ten minutes
while the President wrote the card.
:45:23
Okay, listen...
:45:26
It took him ten minutes to write the card?
:45:28
Apparently, he went through several drafts.
:45:46
What is it?
:45:48
- A ham.
- A ham?
:45:50
He sent me a Virginia ham!
:45:53
Dig it, Ms.Wade,
you're the President's girlfriend.
:45:57
There's never an egg timer around
when you need one.