The Politico piece about his latest carping was entitled "He didn't fix that" where Obama is chided for not fixing the economy.
"Bob Woodward, veteran political reporter and author of "The Price of Politics." said Sunday the biggest question for President Barack Obama is how he handles victory after failing to fix the economy his first term in office."
"The president, no matter who is president, is the chief strategist. They set the tone, they say this is how we're going to do things and fix things," Woodward said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "In the case of Obama, and the first term and the economic issues, he didn't fix them and he didn't find a way to work his will."
Woodward has been saying this since his big tell all book into the inner workings of the debt ceiling negotiations during the Summer of 2011. It must really gall him that voters shrugged off his charge that the President failed to "work his will" by awarding him with a second term and a bigger Senate.
It's vital to understand that what Woodward is saying is basically mythology. He seems to believe that the President is an economic Shaman with almost mystical powers to "work his will" on everything, especially the economy. So anything unpleasant about the economy is his fault. As he has omnipotent power to shape the economy.
A healthy corrective to such Shamanism and mysticism is book by Carl Biven about Jimmy Carter's economy where you see that what did Carter in where intractable problems beyond his power to fix.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-bob-murphy-noahpinion-dustup-over.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-inordinate-fear-of-inlfation-jimmy.html
What did Carter in was that the problems were not really his fault but just the same he looked impotent. Obama would have seemed to be in much the same position in 2012, yet he won big-it was big in the electoral college and the popular vote is now close to a 5 point margin.
What happened? Partly Obama is a much better politician than Carter was and he has victories. My theory remains that the victories he got on ACA and the Arizona immigration law in June were huge. If he lost those-especially ACA-he'd look like a loser. He'd have nothing tangible to show for 4 years of work. But his victory on his biggest priority makes him a winner. Americans don't like losers.
Woodward makes Obama sound like Carter-which perhaps says that the people were smarter this time than Woodward.
He conveniently seems to forget that the President is far from all-powerful constitutionally speaking much less capable of shaping the economy all by his lonesome. If anything it's a fair question to ask if the President has any power to shape the economy. One is tempted to argue he has very little.
Much of the workings of the economy are beyond any politician to effect. Even the area of fiscal policy is set by the Congress more than the President. Why do we never ask Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell for an accounting for the economy? After all had they passed the President's jobs bill we'd be in stronger shape today.
Then again, it seems that the simple minded narrative of a Woodward-he's the President so he has total power to shape the economy-just ignores the real world. In this narrative no American President could ever point out that we are in far better shape than any of our First World counterparts in Britain and the Eurozone and that if anything, it's the troubles in the EU more than here that is the real problem at this point. We at least haven't fallen into a double dip.
In 1988 after Bush trounced Dukakis, Michael Kinsley wrote a post with a memorable title: "Democracy Can Goof." He argued that while of course he respects the right of Americans to vote in a way he disagrees with, he wouldn't deny that he thought they had made the wrong choice and that democracy doesn't guarantee that the people always make wise choices.
This year I feel that the people got it right-that maybe they have learned something in 24 years. This time, America didn't goof.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-bob-murphy-noahpinion-dustup-over.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-inordinate-fear-of-inlfation-jimmy.html
What did Carter in was that the problems were not really his fault but just the same he looked impotent. Obama would have seemed to be in much the same position in 2012, yet he won big-it was big in the electoral college and the popular vote is now close to a 5 point margin.
What happened? Partly Obama is a much better politician than Carter was and he has victories. My theory remains that the victories he got on ACA and the Arizona immigration law in June were huge. If he lost those-especially ACA-he'd look like a loser. He'd have nothing tangible to show for 4 years of work. But his victory on his biggest priority makes him a winner. Americans don't like losers.
Woodward makes Obama sound like Carter-which perhaps says that the people were smarter this time than Woodward.
He conveniently seems to forget that the President is far from all-powerful constitutionally speaking much less capable of shaping the economy all by his lonesome. If anything it's a fair question to ask if the President has any power to shape the economy. One is tempted to argue he has very little.
Much of the workings of the economy are beyond any politician to effect. Even the area of fiscal policy is set by the Congress more than the President. Why do we never ask Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell for an accounting for the economy? After all had they passed the President's jobs bill we'd be in stronger shape today.
Then again, it seems that the simple minded narrative of a Woodward-he's the President so he has total power to shape the economy-just ignores the real world. In this narrative no American President could ever point out that we are in far better shape than any of our First World counterparts in Britain and the Eurozone and that if anything, it's the troubles in the EU more than here that is the real problem at this point. We at least haven't fallen into a double dip.
In 1988 after Bush trounced Dukakis, Michael Kinsley wrote a post with a memorable title: "Democracy Can Goof." He argued that while of course he respects the right of Americans to vote in a way he disagrees with, he wouldn't deny that he thought they had made the wrong choice and that democracy doesn't guarantee that the people always make wise choices.
This year I feel that the people got it right-that maybe they have learned something in 24 years. This time, America didn't goof.
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