Woodward: White House Blames Me for Starting Media Criticism of Obama’s Lack of Leadership

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward made an interesting observation Sunday.

Appearing on Fox News’s MediaBuzz, he claimed that the White House blames him for starting the media’s criticism of President Obama’s lack of leadership (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: You concluded in your book "The Price of Politics" that President Obama in the great budget battle had failed to lead. Now we're hearing that he failed to lead on NSA foreign surveillance, didn't know the details. We're hearing that he failed to lead on the ObamaCare rollout, didn’t know about the technical problems. Has it taken the media too long to reach this analysis?

BOB WOODWARD, WASHINGTON POST: Well, you've got to be empirical about it. In “The Price of Politics” I was being empirical, and that's not to take the Republicans off the hook for all the budget problems. But the President’s the CEO of the country, and has to find a way to work his will. As you recount all of this, and as I do, you see that the President is the one who calls people to the White House. They don't call him to the Congress. And…

KURTZ: But it's more than being empirical.

WOODWARD: …he’s got the hammer.

KURTZ: You as an author had to reach a conclusion.

WOODWARD: Yes.

KURTZ: And some people criticized you for that.

WOODWARD: That’s correct.

KURTZ: And I understand that even today some in the White House are not that happy with Bob Woodward's reporting.

WOODWARD: Yeah, because they said I started it. It was kind of the first time somebody said…

KURTZ: Started what?

WOODWARD: Started this idea of he's got to lead, and he's too passive at times on these budget issues. And…

KURTZ: Is the White House official who told you that accurate? Was the person angry? Are they blaming you for this?

WOODWARD: Well, they never, as you know, no one likes to be criticized and called out. But, you know, they deal with reporters. I think the temperature’s going up right now days as there is more and more criticism on the President's comments on ObamaCare, that, you know, if you like it, you'll keep it. And somebody’s found 29 times that he said that and…

KURTZ: Yeah, I've seen it at least 29 times on the air.

For those that have forgotten, Woodward wrote an article in February critical of the President's handling of the fiscal cliff negotiations at the end of last year while also making it clear that Obama was the one that first proposed sequestration.

Days later it was revealed that he received an email from a very senior person at the White House saying he would regret this article.

At the time, much of the media predictably took Obama's side and came down on Woodward.

With the disaster that has been the ObamaCare rollout, some are now singing a different tune.

Via: Newsbusters

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Woodward: "Secret" Government Under Obama Administration Needs To Be Reviewed

BOB SCHIEFFER: What is so interesting, Bob Woodward, and you know, you and I have seen a lot of these things. 

BOB WOODWARD: Too much.

SCHIEFFER: The first thing that agencies tend to do is try to make sure they can't be blamed for something. And, clearly, that is why the FBI and the CIA did not come clean with the Warren commission, and why maybe they didn't even tell the agents in Dallas what was going on.

WOODWARD: Well, initially, in the Watergate cover-up, part of the argument was, 'Oh, you'll expose convert operations in Mexico,' because they were laundering $89,000 of money that helped finance Watergate. I think there's a theme here in all of this that you have laid out that connects somewhat to what's going on now. And that is the power of this secret world -- CIA, FBI -- particularly in what you've looked at, Phil, the assassination plots against Castro. I mean, it's stunning, and this information really didn't get to the Warren commission. And it's not saying that Castro did it, but that there's all this secrecy and the people at the top or the people investigating the commission does not get the evidence.

We look now at what's going on with all the NSA wiretapping and people saying, 'Well, they didn't know, or they did know.' It clearly is much more extensive than people expected. You connect this with the drone strikes in Pakistan, and Yemen, which is our government conducting regular assassinations by air. You know, what's -- what's going on here? Who is in control of it? And who can find out? You know, I think -- it's in the New York Times this morning that there is a review that Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser for Obama, has done on Mid-East policy. They need to review this secret world and its power in their government because you run into this rats nest of concealment and lies time and time again, then and now.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Bob Woodward on Obama's Sequestration Comments: 'What The President Said Is Not Correct'

Bob Woodward says President Barack Obama got some of his facts wrong on sequester at Monday night’s debate.

Woodward’s book, “The Price of Politics,” has been the go-to fact check source for the president’s answer, in which he claimed the idea of using deep, automatic, across-the-board domestic and defense spending cuts to force Congress to address the nation’s burgeoning federal deficit originated from Congress, not from the White House.

(Also on POLITICO: D.C. caught off guard by Obama sequester vow)

“What the president said is not correct,” Woodward told POLITICO Tuesday. “He’s mistaken. And it’s refuted by the people who work for him.”

Woodward, a Washington Post journalist who was a key reporter on the initial coverage of the Watergate scandal, said he stands behind his reporting in the book, which drew upon sources involved in last year’s deficit talks and detailed notes taken in the meetings.

(Also on POLITICO: Woodward's book: 5 telling moments)

Woodward reports in his book that White House Office of Management Director Jack Lew and Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors took the proposal for sequestration to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and then it was presented to congressional Republicans.

During the debate, however, Obama said the idea originated on Capitol Hill.

“First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed,” Obama said, adding his strongest pronouncement to date on its future: “It will not happen.”

Woodward said there’s a possibility the president was unaware of how the idea came about.

“It’s a complicated process — and in fairness to the president — maybe he didn’t know that they were doing this because it’s kind of technical budget jargon,” Woodward said.

Via: Politico

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