Bob Woodward speaking on Sequestration - Photo and Article Business Insider: "BOB WOODWARD: Obama Is Showing 'A Kind Of Madness I Haven't Seen In A Long Time"
Bob Woodward of “Watergate” fame, established journalist and associate editor of the Washington Post, has had an epiphany. Apparently, the Obama Administration is playing fast and loose with the facts as they relate to sequestration, and, as a result, Woodward has had the gall to call them out! The details of the “feud” are available on Politico in an exclusive interview entitled simply “Woodward at War” (Here at politico.com) In the piece it outlines Woodward’s incredulity that the President would “spin” the fact that he is responsible for sequestration, not the “Republicans” and has been misleading the public as a result, while using campaign tactics, which one of the White House Aides noted in a somewhat threatening email to Woodward, were to further the White House Agenda. Woodward is not backing down. (Politico) In fact, he he has stepped up editorializing that he Presidents decision to pull back on defense prior to the “Sequestration” is “madness”.(Reuters).
The MSM has countered as of this morning with ABC focusing more on the White House and their operatives:
“Former Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith also opined: “Woodward deserves a lot of credit for taking a macro story about DC dysfunction, competing econ theories & making it all about him,” she said. In the column at the center of the storm, Woodward writes the White House has been deliberately disingenuous about its role in the sequester, and accused Obama of “moving the goal posts” by insisting Republicans agree to new tax revenue as part of any substitute for the sequester. “That was not the deal he made,” he says.”
Woodward is about to come to a new epiphany, outside of certain limited news outlets, the balance of them will side with the White House, in fact, Bob Woodward and his accurate portrayal of events regarding the sequester, will receive little to no airplay or ink. Rather, the media, from local to national, is touting the fears that the white house is propagating.
Since Woodward has been public in his questions on the tactics used by the White House, the left are treating him as “right wing”, and those elected officials in the Republican Party, who were accommodating to Woodward in his newly published book on Sequetration, (Politico) are most likely in shock that he has formed this opinion and publicly.
The bigger question is: Has Woodward been living under a rock for since 2009? He must have missed the histrionics, fear tactics, and “campaign-style” messaging that the white house has delivered on the Stimulus, the Jobs Bills, name an issue. The fact of the matter is, that the White House has cried “wolf” so many times, the general public could care less now. It is not the fact that “Sequestration” is hard for most Americans to comprehend (given the length and obscurity of the word); news agencies are boiling that down to “severe budget cuts” and “lost jobs” in order to get the President’s point across.
The fact that the Congress has brought budgets, proposals, and other reasonable bills forward, during the length of the Administration, all stalled at the desk of either Harry Reid, Democrat Majority Leader of the Senate or the White House or a combination of both – must have been lost on Woodward.
Of course, those previously uncompromising Republicans (who are blamed for the Sequestration - inaccurately), are not going to meet with the White House today (NBC New) Here’s what the general public expects: The two sides will meet, there will be a deal, and all will be well, until the next “crisis”. What is most likely to occur, the decrease in projected spending will be either greatly reduced or eliminated, and there will be tax increases to cover the cost of the increased spending as well as additional spending – in other words, John Boehner will cave in to Obama over a round of golf.
If Boehner does not, it will be a shock to those Conservatives who see Washington as one big Party feast on the American taxpayer. If Boehner sticks to his guns over this non-existent crisis, and insists that these cuts to discretionary spending and defense are made – with zero additional tax increases, in order to get the deficit on the first tiny step towards sanity – it would make him the media’s “Public Enemy #1” and give him some credibility among those who feel he’s been singing, go along to get along in DC.
The later is unlikely to occur.
Woodward, however, being right on target with a subject and publicly so, will come to the realization that those in power, enjoy it, and will continue to abuse their power, regardless of political affiliation. Their popularity with the public relying solely on marketing, and aided by a willing media, will make it difficult, if not impossible for the “Bob Woodward’s” of the world to combat with “hard hitting journalism” – That ship has sailed. What is left are those who know, not all is well, above board, and for the people and those who are led by the nose as if they are being returned to Korea to a certain death by the willing Chinese. There are more of the later, which is a growing problem for the nation, as those who are “easily duped” continue to vote. They vote by issues that will never be solved, and they continue to elect multiple term Senators and Congressional Representatives that are more interested in keeping their power base in DC than serving those who hired them. That is true for both political parties. Which is why, in his Farewell address, the First President of the United States offered his take on Political parties by noting: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Washington was not alone in the concept of the danger of political parties and the powers they would amass, one might flip through the Federalist papers, where this was a resounding theme, and today, it can be deem prophetic. (Also a note, they where vehemently opposed to the addition of “Freedom of the Press to the bill of rights – the reason: the founders feared the press would align itself with a political ideology, inconsistent with the founder’s visions and use their power to “overthrow the nation” ) (Federalist Papers – available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18)
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