The debt crisis ground on through weeks of negotiation, and, if you're wondering what that looked like behind the scenes, the White House has released these photos taken by White House photographer Pete Souza over the last month, most of them from the 24 hours before a deal was finally reached.

Of course, if talks ever devolved into literal wrestling between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, we wouldn't expect them to show up in the White House's Flickr feed. Absent from this official collection are shots of Obama with circles under his eyes and a desperate expression. But they still give us a look at the president and his advisers as they strategized with Democrats and negotiated with Republicans.

We've also learned from these photos that, when President Obama makes a phone call from Chief of Staff Bill Daley's office, he sits behind Daley's desk.

Image credits: Pete Souza/White House

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