Lost, but now found

“FEARLESS” is how Barack Obama now describes his mood. A series of triumphs has suddenly given him a second wind. On June 29th he at last won “fast-track” authority to negotiate foreign-trade deals, paving the way for deeper economic engagement with Asia and Europe. On June 25th the Supreme Court rejected a conservative attempt to disembowel the Affordable Care Act, Mr Obama’s flagship health-care law. A day later the justices declared gay marriage a fundamental right in all 50 states, and the White House spent the next night bathed in rainbow lights (see ).Mr Obama cannot claim all the credit. The Supreme Court is not part of his administration, though he nominated two of its nine justices. And his free-trade victory owed much to Republicans in Congress, who beat back a revolt by populist Democrats intent on blocking the Democrat in the White House. But a win is a win, and the president now has momentum to deal with another cause close to his heart: racial justice.