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TIME Politics Hillary Clinton Brooks KraftCorbis Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes part in a Center for American Progress roundtable discussion on "Expanding Opportunities in America's Urban Areas" in Washington on March 23, 2015.

In February 2013, Hillary Clinton became a private citizen for the first time in two decades. The former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State said she was retiring from public view to spend more time at home with Bill to watch stupid movies and laugh at our dogs. But her foray into private life was brief, and it wouldnt be long before Clinton returned to politics with the grandest of goals: to become president.

Today, as she launches her second campaign for the White House, Clinton has definitively re-entered public life. But her time off was far from a vacation. Instead, Clinton was busy honing her stump speech, developing a campaign platform and carefully laying the groundwork for a massive campaign operation.

Here are some of the things Clinton did during the last two years.

She distanced herself from President Obama

One of Clintons greatest difficulties as a former Secretary of State in the Obama administration will be to differentiate herself from the current president, even as she expresses support for some of his policies. In an interview last year with The Atlantic, Clinton did just that: The president, she said, didnt do enough to assist Syrian rebels early in the bloody conflict. The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad, Clinton said at the time, left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled.

She publicly supported gay marriage

Support for gay marriage is now a central part of the Democratic platform, and the candidate who wins the nomination will have to have same-sex marriage credentials. Clinton announced her support for gay marriage in a six-minute video released in March 2013. LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones, telling viewers that she supported marriage equality personally, and as a matter of policy and law.

Some questioned her tardiness, though: Clintons proclamation came nearly a year after President Obamas, and by 2013, support of gay marriage was a mainstream view. In a testy interview on NPR, interviewer Terry Gross pushed her on whether her views on gay marriage had evolved, or Clinton had concealed her true views for political reasons. You are playing with my words, Clinton said. I did not grow up even imagining gay marriage and I dont think you did either. As Secretary of State, however, Clinton would have been breaking a longstanding tradition of keeping mum on domestic policy if she had voiced support of gay marriage.

She offered qualified praise for Obamacare

Read more here:
What Hillary Clinton Did Before Her Campaign