Trying to Figure Out Bob Woodward
—By Kevin Drum
| Mon Sep. 10, 2012 9:00 AM PDT
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I have no idea, really, but my theory is that he's just stuck in the past. He's never really internalized the Gingrich revolution and what it's done to the GOP over the past couple of decades. This is peculiar in the extreme since Woodward, more than almost anyone, has been reporting on this stuff in agonizing detail the entire time. If anyone should know what's going on here, it's him.
And yet, he seems to still be living in some nostalgic past where Tip and Ronnie sat down to hash things out over a beer or two and always ended up saving the world. I'm not quite sure what else it could be.
You can criticize Obama for his performance in the debt ceiling fight. You can pick out specific offers and counteroffers and withdrawn offers and say that Obama misplayed things. That's fine. But at the end of the day, there's really no question about two things. First, Obama was willing to make some fairly substantial spending cuts, including cuts to entitlement spending, that would have enraged his base. Second, John Boehner was completely and absolutely unable to get his caucus to agree to so much as a dime in tax increases. Like Woodward, I'd like to think that there was some way for Obama to tear down that brick wall. But is there any evidence that such a way existed? Any evidence at all?
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/09/trying-figure-out-bob-woodward
DO SOMETHING!
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