Woodward: “Madness…I haven’t seen in a long time”

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From Real Clear Politics

Bob Woodward blasted President Obama on Wednesday morning for deciding to recall an aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf because of impending budget cuts, calling the decision “a kind of madness.”

Woodward: Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do this because of some budget document?’ Or George W. Bush saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to invade Iraq because I can’t get the aircraft carriers I need’ or even Bill Clinton saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to attack Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters,’ as he did when Clinton was president because of some budget document? Under the Constitution, the president is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the president going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country. That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time.

The GOP has proposed giving Obama flexibility on the upcoming cuts

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are preparing to counter increasingly dire warnings from President Obama about the impact of automatic budget cuts with a plan to give the administration more flexibility in instituting $85 billion in cuts, a proposal they say could protect the most vital programs while shifting more of the political fallout to the White House.

Obama will have none of it.

The plan is vigorously opposed by the administration, which said Monday that it would do little to soften the blow to military and domestic programs. But it is also dividing Democrats, with lawmakers from the states facing the deepest cuts signaling that they may be prepared to go along with Republicans if it means avoiding indiscriminate cuts to military programs and social services.

With just three days left until the across-the-board cuts called sequestration are scheduled to begin, administration officials continued to describe the consequences in alarming terms, even as there was little evidence of serious negotiations with lawmakers to reach a deal to avoid them.

Household income has fallen 8.2% under Obama. We have had to suck it up and do without.

Obama cannot do without even a 2.4% cut.

A reasonable President would act to minimize the alleged impact of the coming cuts.

Not Obama. He is bent on maximizing the damage because he is not getting the obeisance he demands .

That is madness.

UPDATE

Woodward says he was threatened by the White House

Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret doing this,” the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.

CNN host Wolf Blitzer said that the network invited a White House official to debate Woodward on-air, but the White House declined.

“It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, ‘You’re going to regret doing something that you believe in,'” Woodward said.

“I think they’re confused,” Woodward said of the White House’s pushback on his reporting.

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@johngalt:

The fact that Woodward felt it was threatening is interesting, even with the content of the e-mail out there for everyone to see, don’t you think?

The fact is that he’s claimed to feel threatened. You are correct that I can’t know how he feels, and the claim alone from such a distinguished figure demands scrutiny. But if this is the Obama Administration playing hardball, I think we have more serious worries. I find it somewhat dubious that Woodward could perceive this apologetic email as a veiled threat. Nor does this seem to me like the response of a man who feels threatened:

From Woodward to Sperling on Feb. 23, 2013

Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html#ixzz2MJOqKTnC

He didn’t take it as threat….Politico inferred it:

Via the original Politico story, showing Woorward’s actual quotes:

Woodward repeated the last sentence, making clear he saw it as a veiled threat. “ ‘You’ll regret.’ Come on,” he said. “I think if Obama himself saw the way they’re dealing with some of this, he would say, ‘Whoa, we don’t tell any reporter ‘you’re going to regret challenging us.’”…

…“They have to be willing to live in the world where they’re challenged,” Woodward continued in his calm, instantly recognizable voice. “I’ve tangled with lots of these people. But suppose there’s a young reporter who’s only had a couple of years — or 10 years’ — experience and the White House is sending him an email saying, ‘You’re going to regret this.’ You know, tremble, tremble. I don’t think it’s the way to operate.”

In follow up interviews, Woodward makes that very point, that the actual word “threat” was used by Politico, not him.

Wapo:

Woodward said he stands by the idea that Sperling’s language was over the line but stops short of suggesting outright intimidation. “I never characterized it as a ‘threat,’ ” he said. “I think that was Politico’s word. I said I think [Sperling’s] language is unfortunate, and I don’t think it’s the way to operate. . . . [Sperling’s] language speaks for itself. I don’t think that’s the way to operate.”

CURT
HI, YOUR OTHER MESSAGE ON ;
WHY WE NEED HIGH CAPACITY MAGAZINES GAVE ME A ;
NO PAGE FOUND,
BYE

J.G. Ret05 et.al. Seems pretty clear Woodward never said he was being threatened or intimidated by the Admin. Inferred by Politico.
Thanks for clearing that up Curt.

VEIL THREATS ARE THREATS GIVEN BY A COWARD
WHO NEED TO VEIL HIS THREATS,
IF WOODWARD DID NOT MENTION IT,
POLITICO DID SEE IT

@Richard Wheeler:

Seems pretty clear Woodward never said he was being threatened or intimidated by the Admin.

Well, it’s true that Bob Woodward has been around the block more than once with the D.C. elite. He never said he felt threatened, perhaps because he doesn’t threaten easily, but if you notice, he did mention other, less seasoned junior reporters who could have viewed the statements of Sperling as a threat. Compare it to a seasoned Marine not being intimidate by a 16 year old punk who can intimidate other 16 year olds, if you will.

Do I think Sperling was making vague threats to Woodward? You betcha. But Sperling needs to learn the strength of his advisary before he starts thowing down the gauntlet.

I THINK
DENIS RODMAN WAS GIVEN A MESSAGE FROM OBAMA SECRET TO BRING
TO THE NORTH KOREAN TOP GUY, MAYBE ACCOMPANY WITH MONEY LOTS OF IT.
MONEY HE DOESN’T HAVE YET,
he is spending the money ahead , that’s why he get into threats

@retire05:

Look, I believe that Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. has an opportunity to unite this nation in ways that no other president, since George Washington, had. His bi-racial heritage being one of those opportunities. The nation showed that it has moved on from the days of Jim Crow and that a man of color could acheive the highest office in the land. He has not done that, instead, this nation, because of Obama’s policies, is more divided than ever. He has appointed people who have swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction, people like Eric Holder, who refers to black Americans as “my people” when his people should be every American, not just those whose skin is dark. Whistle blowers have testified that in the DoJ, hate crimes perpetrated by blacks was to be ignored. Obama makes statements about a black kid that was shot by a [white] Hispanic, but says nothing for months about the black on black crime in Chicago that has taken the lives of many small children.

I don’t disagree with Obama because of what ever reason you have cooked up in your head, I disagree with Obama because I truely believe that he is a Saul Alinksy Marxist.

Made the mistake of re-reading this choice nugget. A ” Saul Alinksy Marxist”, is he? Is that another way of calling someone a racist? Because that’s what the rest of your comment is implying. It’s so nice to know that you sincerely believed Barack Obama was going to “unite this nation”. It must have been a sad day when you lost hope and finally pulled the “Obama/Biden” sign out of your lawn.

Tom
don’t you have any comment to bring ?
why do you have to copy someone else comment,
hey do you belong to the OBAMA CYBER BOOK?

@Tom:

Made the mistake of re-reading this choice nugget. A ” Saul Alinksy Marxist”, is he? Is that another way of calling someone a racist?

Is it clear someone needs to buy you a dictionary. Can you really be so uneducated that you don’t know the difference between “Marxist” and “racist?” They are NOT one and the same. Woodrow Wilson was a racist, he was not a Marxist.

It’s so nice to know that you sincerely believed Barack Obama was going to “unite this nation”.

You also seem to need a reading comprehension course, as well. What is it about:

ck Hussein Obama, Jr. has an opportunity to unite this nation in ways that no other president, since George Washington, had.

I said he had the opportunity. Where did I say I believed he would use it?

It must have been a sad day when you lost hope and finally pulled the “Obama/Biden” sign out of your lawn.

Don’t kid yourself, Tom. I’m not a low information voter. I had been following Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.’s career, and his poltical actions, since he gave the keynote speech at the Democrat convention. It is unusual for any political party to pull some obscure state politician out of the fog to be given that honor. No one, outside of the DNC movers and shakers knew who he was. But within days of that speech, I knew Obama was an Alinskyite. And a danger to this nation. And I knew that the national Democrat Party would not be pushing such a junior state senator so someone had to be behind that push. Who? Why?

Don’t forget; Obama taught the philosophy of Saul Alinsky at the University of Chicago where he was an adjunct professor (he did not have tenure, and was not considered a full professor, although UC lied about it later). I accessed his Illinois Senate votes (mostly voting “present”), the bills he had submitted, and it was clear that he was the most far left kind of politician to come out of the Chicago political swamp.

So don’t kid yourself that I ever supported him. I opposed him back then, and I still oppose him. His presidency will prove to be one of the most disasterous presidencies in our nation’s history, when all is said and all is done. He has already done what I expected him to do; throw our nation into unimaginable debt, set race relations back 50 years with his policy of appeasment toward certain segments of our population, destroy Constitutional rights, and pretty act like the dictator he claims not to be.

I also do not believe he is the “smartest man to ever occupy the Oval Office” crap thrown out by fellow Marxist journalists and politicians. Just look at what happens when he goes off teleprompter. He is a disaster. He is in constant campaign mode, and as far as I’m concerned, and have said before, he is just Howdy Doody to Valerie Jarrett’s Buffalo Bob. His talent lies in campaigning, not governing.

Reto5 It is your reading comprehension that is lacking. Tom was clearly being facetious in his comment about you “pulling the Obama/Biden sign from your front yard.”
No one believes you EVER supported Obama or saw him in any positive light.You and fellow right wingers see him as a Saul Alinsky Marxist and have rooted for his failure.
Then YOU turned out to be the losers in 2012. The right bashed and weakened Romney right up to his nomination. Handed the win to BHO.
Now the sore losers talk impeachment. What B.S.

Richard Wheeler
you got it wrong,
it’s the way that election was handle, name any of those
and you have a sure winner of what?
surely not a COUNTRY, A 47% WELFARE WHO THINK IT’S OBAMA PAYING THEM,
THEY HAVE BEING TOLD A BUNCH OF LIES, AND THE UNIONS THUGS SEND
ALL AROUND TO DO THEIR THINGS THEY KNOW BEST,
AND THE COMPUTERS BEING SET UP TO TURN THE VOTES FROM ROMNEY TO OBAMA,
WHICH TECH CRIMINAL HIDING UNDERNEATH SOMEWHERE NOT TO BE FOUND COVERED IN SECRET DID THAT? FOR HOW MUCH?
AND THE DEAD RISING FROM HELL TO VOTE OBAMA,
AND THE WORKERS ON BALLOTS SOME WHERE SUSPECTED,
AND ONE WOMAN VOTE 6 TIMES, WOW HOW MANY MORE, IT’S BEING INSPECTED NOW
THERE WAS MORE FRAUD THAN WE NOW KNOW, BUT IT WILL BE UNCOVER SOON.
YES WHAT BS YOU BRING,
do you take all AMERICANS are fools?
think again.
MITT ROMNEY WAS TO WIN THE ELECTION FOR SURE IF THE ELECTION WAS A LEGITIMATE ONE,

@Richard Wheeler:

Reto5 It is your reading comprehension that is lacking. Tom was clearly being facetious in his comment about your “pulling the Obama/Biden sign from your front yard.”

Bingo. I hope you’re finding these attempts by Retire5 to rehabilitate her garbage image with weak nods toward reasonableness as threadbare and laughable as I do. Now we’re supposed to believe that all along she was open-minded about Obama and reserved judgement until that fateful day when he was unmasked as “A Saul Alinsky Marxist”, whatever the hell that means. Like I said, laughable. We all know she despises the man, and always has, so I find it pointless and – yes – dishonest for her to portray her feelings any other way. The thing is, pathological liars are almost always poor liars who think they’re brilliant liars: it’s a reflection of their contempt for us that they think we buy their crap, when usually we just choose to tolerate it once in a while from sheer exhaustion at pointing it out. It also really says something about a person when she has to brag about atypically not behaving in an atrocious manner for the first time in forever: “I could respond to that, but I won’t. A promise made is a promise kept.” I guess we’re all supposed to line up and praise Retire5 for being a promise-keeper, a beacon of moral purity, a better person than us all. What a joke.

Bees Same ol same ol. Doesn’t it ever get tiresome? I know it po’s Ret05 but Ill say again. With all due respect, IMO, your delusional rantings do more to HURT your cause then help it.
Take the positive and honest messages of Mata Aqua,Word and Aye.

Tom Re Reto5 She is making an effort to rehabilitate an image so clearly illuminated by Conservative authors Mata and Aye.I’m looking forward to seeing how she does.

@Richard Wheeler:

No one believes you EVER supported Obama or saw him in any positive light.You and fellow right wingers see him as a Saul Alinsky Marxist and have rooted for his failure.

I don’t “root” for the failure of any president, as that failure has consequences that affect, not the D.C. elite, but the average American in fly-over country. But was there any doubt that Obama would be a classic case of “failure?”

Then YOU turned out to be the losers in 2012. The right bashed and weakened Romney right up to his nomination. Handed the win to BHO.

I didn’t have any choice in the Republican primaries in 2012. By the time the primaries got to my state, due to the DNC suing my state over a Voter I.D. law that would prevent the disenfrancisement of many minority voters in Texas, our primary was late and the die had been cast. No, Romney would not have been my choice, but he was a northeastern liberal squish that the East Coast seemed to think was the right guy. I could have told them that Romney would lose and would not garner excitement in the conservative voter base anymore than John McCain, another RINO, did.

As to Tom’s facetiousness, do you have a computer program that allows detection of that? If so, I would really like to get that program so I can tell when someone is being facetious. Perhaps you could also direct me to a program that allows for the detection of humor (perhaps you computer would make a laughing sound when you read Tom’s posts)? Because although I find Tom a pathetic progressive, I am sure there is humor in his posts somewhere.

Richard Wheeler
I’ll give my opinion until they get so boring that you’ll stop reading it
bye

retire05
I said it and other said it everywhere, the election was not for one person,
but for AMERICA’S SAKE, THOSE WHO DID NOT LISTEN ARE PAYING THE PRICE
AND CANNOT BLAME ANYBODY, FOR THE STUPIDITY.
MITT ROMNEY WOULD AT THIS TIME BE MOVING ALL OVER THE PLACE TO GET THIS AMERICA ON THE JOBS,
HE WOULD HAVE BEEN JOINED BY THE CREATOR OF JOBS, AND HIS CREW WOULD NOT BE SCREWING AMERICAN BUT REPAIR THE FAILURES AND CHANGE THE WHITE HOUSE INTO WHAT SHE WAS BEFORE, THAT IS A SHINNING LIGHT ON THE HILLS , WHERE AMERICA WAS SO PROUD OF HAVING A GOOD ABLE SMART AND TOLERANT, UNABLE TO USE THE LOW BLOWS ON HIS OPPONANT
BECAUSE HE IS ABOVE THAT LOW CLASS OF PEOPLE WHO MADE HIM A VILAIN A THIEF A MURDERER A MONEY MONGER, BECAUSE THEY WHERE SCARE STIFF OF HIM,
YOU MISS YOUR SHOT BIG TIME,
YOU SHOULD HAVE VOTE FOR HIM, NO YOU VOTE FOR YOURSELF
LOOK WHAT YOU CHOOSE INSTEAD

@Tom:

Now we’re supposed to believe that all along she was open-minded about Obama and reserved judgement until that fateful day when he was unmasked as “A Saul Alinsky Marxist”, whatever the hell that means.

No, I was never open minded about the pseudo professor who talk Saul Alinsky at the University of Chicago. I am never open minded about those who support Marxism.

We all know she despises the man, and always has, so I find it pointless and – yes – dishonest for her to portray her feelings any other way.

And where did I ever say I didn’t despise Obama? I despise all Socialists/Marxists/Communists, just as your grandparents despised Nazism, Fascism, and Communism. You see, Tom, inspite of you trying to put words in my mouth that are not there, I am quite open about my feelings toward those who seek to destroy our nation by making it into some concept of the Socialist Utopia.

“I could respond to that, but I won’t. A promise made is a promise kept.” I guess we’re all supposed to line up and praise Retire5 for being a promise-keeper, a beacon of moral purity, a better person than us all. What a joke.

That promise was a message to someone else on this board, not to a dimwit like you.

@Richard Wheeler:

Tom Re Reto5 She is making an effort to rehabilitate an image so clearly illuminated by Conservative authors Mata and Aye.I’m looking forward to seeing how she does.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only image needing rehabilitation is yours, for becoming nothing more than a simple political gangbanger.

Ms Bees #67 Your best statement evah KUDOS
# 68 There you go again—-I tried lol

Ret05 calls me a “simple political gangbanger”–A definIte improvement. BTW Who’s in my gang?

You say Tex. Primary came late. Perry was favorite son and would have won easily—HOLD ON—Because he’d shown care and compassion for the immigrant school children of Texas he was vilified by Far Right and went from front runner for the nom. to also ran and then dropped out.

Seems to me “compassion” is a quality the Far Right sees as a weakness.

@Richard Wheeler:

Who’s in my gang?

Do you need a script for Aracept?

Perry was favorite son and would have won easily—HOLD ON—Because he’d shown care and compassion for the immigrant school children of Texas he was vilified by Far Right and went from front runner for the nom. to also ran and then dropped out.

Perhaps you should do a little research on how many “illegal” kids take advantage of the in-state tuition program. Perhaps you would not be so quick to run your mouth. And where are the ones who actually do going to school? I can promise you, it’s not like Mitt Romney, who loves him some illegals for lawn care and tennis court cleaning, said.

Now, care to talk about how my state is doing financially under an “also ran” compared to your state under Governor Moonbeam?

Reto5 My statement was about reason for Tex. Gov. Perry’s fall from frontrunner to drop out in a matter of weeks. True or false.”Also ran” was re his candidacy only.
Strawman stuff you bring up—-maybe later