Free Republic

Not being one to jump on the current topic du jour, we could not pass up this one. The Obama Administration picks a major fight with the most famous journalist in America -- and we are not speaking about Bill O’Reilly or Ron Burgundy. It is rarely a good thing for political leaders to jump into hand-to-hand combat with the press. Bob Woodward has been a liberal icon for forty years. After all, Woodward and Bernstein were the principals in bringing down the all-time boogie man of the left – Richard Nixon. How can you question a man played by...

<p>As coverage of last week’s flare-up between Bob Woodward and the White House devolved into the granular parsing of words and implications and extrapolations and possible intent, the larger point was roundly missed: the increasing pressure that White House correspondents feel when dealing with the Obama administration — to follow their narrative, to be properly deferential (!), to react to push-back by politely sitting down and shutting up.</p>

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling admits that, yes, in fact, the sequestration was President Obama's plan: White House economic adviser Gene Sperling admits that, yes, in fact, the sequestration was President Obama's plan: "We put forth the design of" the sequestration, Sperling finally admits after a long back-and-forth.

It’s difficult to imagine that he was surprised by the outcome. But the White House response that ensued after Author and Journalist Bob Woodward dared to question and criticize the President should be an eye-opener to the world. And the fact that America’s beltway media culture has essentially “sided” with the President and seems quite comfortable with the White House hostility is a very telling sign. Consider the relationship between the presidency and the press over the course of American history. Believe it or not, the White House has been home to lots of outlandish and at times illegal...

A reader forwarded me the link to this Michael Barone article from October 11, 2008 (the day before the first post at Legal Insurrection), The Coming Obama Thugocracy: "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors,” Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. “I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people’s faces. They seem determined to shut people up....

Buzzfeed and Current TV contributor Michael Hastings joins Current TV to talk about Bob Woodward’s claims that the White House threatened him and his ongoing criticisms of the Obama administration. Cenk says, “[Woodward's] such a great microcosm of the media in Washington.

When one of Washington's most distinguished journalists -- Bob Woodward -- accuses the White House of rewriting history, even liberals should take note. And when the White House responds by threatening him, you would think the story would become a national scandal. What makes the story even more important is that it deals with an issue that has dominated the news in recent weeks: the Draconian budget cuts that will take effect on March 1 unless a last-minute deal is reached in Congress. Woodward has accused the White House of misrepresenting the president's role in creating the plan to cut...

Ace sums up the three reasons that the medialeft, and in particular the BuzzFeed, Talking Points Memo and Media Matters JournoList mafia, are now doing everything they can to tear down Bob Woodward. There are several lies Woodward has exposed: 1. Obama, despite the media blitz to blame the GOP, actually conceived of and proposed the sequester. 2. Obama, despite now claiming that tax increases must be part of the deal to avoid the sequester, agreed last year that only spending cuts would constitute the plan to avoid the sequester. Thus, he’s “moved goalposts” yet again. 3. Obama does not...

It's most gratifying that people are beginning to wake up to the bullying tactics of the White House toward those in the press who occasionally stray from the government-owned media model, but this has been going on for a while. Veteran reporter Bob Woodward has said in interviews with Politico and CNN that a White House official warned him he would "regret" publishing a story reporting that the sequestration was President Obama's idea. "(The White House aide) yelled at me for about a half-hour," said Woodward. The aide later apologized to Woodward in an email and claimed he was...

David Axelrod has written Gene Sperling off as a political lightweight lacking the tonnage to have intimidated Bob Woodward in their dust-up over the sequester. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Axelrod sarcastically asked "what is Gene Sperling going to do to Bob Woodward? Bob Woodward, who faced down H.R. Haldemann as a young man, feels intimidated by Gene Sperling?" You really have to hear the sneer in Axelrod's voice as he pronounces the name "Gene Sperling" to appreciate just how far under the bus Axelrod was willing to throw a fellow member of Team Obama. View the video here.

The Obama Administration has been Woodwarded again, this time with a major scoop: Bob Woodward has a major front-page story that is more or less a summary precis of General McChrystal’s confidential Initial Assessment of the Afghan situation...I have a few initial assessments of my own: 1. It is not good to have a document like this leaked into the public debate before the President has made his decision...I assume the Obama team is very angry about this, and I think they have every right to be... 4. The leak makes it harder for President Obama to reject a McChrystal...

Wow, so Bob Woodward’s new book is making a lot of headlines to today and why shouldn’t it? It’s an amazing view into the White House and well, frankly scared the bejeesus out of me just knowing that this joker is in charge of our country and military. Where to begin? It starts with the front page story from the Washington Post which talks about Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars. The book quite literally is a stark reality check for the American people on who their Commander-in-Chief is and how he thinks. The first bombshell that people are talking...

According to Bob Woodward, Barack Obama got "pissed" with the US military for demanding more troops. The startling disclosure that is not presidential at all comes as part of author Bob Woodward’s first interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer as he begins to hawk his new book, "Obama’s Wars." In one of the meetings Obama attended to review Afghanistan policy, he simply blurted out, "I’m pissed!" because he was getting frustrated with the insistence of US military leaders demanding more troops so they could win in Afghanistan. Just imagine, US military leaders actually had the unmitigated gall to dare ask their...

Obama aides divided over Afghanistan: book Woodward book reveals nothing new: adviser WASHINGTON -- President Obama's top advisers spent much of the past 20 months arguing about policy and turf, according to a new book, with some top members of his national security team doubting the president's strategy in Afghanistan will work. The book, Obama's Wars, by journalist Bob Woodward, says Obama aides were deeply divided over the war in Afghanistan even as the president agreed to triple troop levels there. Obama's top White House adviser on Afghanistan and his special envoy for the region are described as believing the...

What is most disturbing about the coverage of Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" is not the juicy bits of conflict and infighting; it is the fact that the White House seems pleased with the image of President Obama that emerges. "I think the president comes across pretty well in the book," says one official, "even if it looks crazy around him." What comes across is a president deeply skeptical about the Afghan war, suspicious of the advice of military leaders and obsessed with finding exits and setting withdrawal deadlines. To a press or political aide in the administration, this must seem...

Here is video of famed journalist/author Bob Woodward talking about President Obama’s private interview with him in the White House where Obama said that the United States “can absorb a terrorist attack.” The audio of Obama saying that to Woodward is then played on the video, and Woodward said, “I jumped in my chair a little bit” when he heard Obama say that. He also played audio of Obama talking about a “potential game-changer” – a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists “blowing up a major American city.” Obama told Woodward, “That is where I can’t afford any mistakes.”...

President Barack Obama is letting down his troops and seems not to have the commitment and 'X-factor' to win the war in Afghanistan, Bob Woodward has told The Daily Telegraph. This strong opinion is all the more stinging because it comes not from the US President’s usual vociferous critics but Bob Woodward, the legendary Watergate journalist who is normally scrupulous at keeping his views to himself. “I believe in neutral inquiry,” he tells The Daily Telegraph in an interview. “That is the core job of the journalist.”

What is the most popular part of The Woodward Report? The headlines page is the primary focus, it’s updated constantly. The page is designed to provide the most thoughtful and influential stories so that the readers can form a complete, current political picture of the times. It provides links to stories from various news outlets across the web plus original content that we provide ourselves. We primarily link to U.S. based publications but we do pick up a lot from global publications as well. The Woodward Report links to stories of news and analysis to a vast variety of publications....

I had originally reserved today to recap some of the antics from the lesser acts at last week’s DNC (Democratic National Circus). Such as Sandy Two Buck Fluke, Kerry “Today there are people trying (to) take away rights that our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought for: our right to vote, our right to choose, affordable quality education, equal pay, access to health care... and Joey “fact-check me, I dare you!” Biden. Butt then news about a new soon-to-be-released blockbuster by Bob Woodward came out in the Washington Post: Inside story of Obama’s struggle to keep Congress from controlling outcome of...

Success may have a thousand fathers, and failure be an orphan, but don’t doubt the parentage of the sequester. After yet another week of White House denials of paternity and a new layer of hysteria over the nature of the cuts involved, Bob Woodward reminds us again who came up with the plan in the first place. As he reported in his book The Price of Politics more than a year ago from on-the-record interviews with the players involved, the sequester was proposed by then-Chief of Staff Jack Lew and personally approved by President Barack Obama, before Harry Reid presented...