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What could go wrong? Biden is appointing Gene Sperling to a role overseeing the implementation of the administration’s coronavirus relief plan, a White House official confirmed on Monday. The announcement could come as early as Monday, sources familiar with the plans told POLITICO, which first reported the administration’s plans to tap Sperling. Sperling, who currently lives in Los Angeles with his family, brings a wealth of experience on economic policy issues to the stimulus czar position. He served as head of the National Economic Council under both Clinton and Obama as well as a top adviser at the Treasury Department...

Have you ever had somebody try to sell you on something but the pitch goes on and on and on with a complicated explanation which is almost impossible to understand? If you were smart, you would walk away with your hand on your wallet. Such was the case yesterday when Gene Sperling, Hillary Clinton's economic adviser, attempted to explain her economic policies on Bloomberg's With All Due Respect to hosts John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. His seemingly endless complex explanations seemed to frustrate the hosts until Heilemann asked Sperling to very briefly explain her economic policy. The result? Sperling went on another yet...

The Talk Shows January 5th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Mitt Romney; Mark Rienzi, a lawyer for an organization of Catholic nuns challenging a requirement that some religion-affiliated groups provide health insurance that includes birth control; Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.; Gene Sperling, director of the White House's National Economic Council; Dr. John Noseworthy, CEO of the Mayo Clinic; Dr. Delos Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Senate Majority Leader Harry...

Obama told 25 governors on a conference call that the shutdown "is hurting local economies." President Obama hit Congressional Republicans on Friday telling a bipartisan group of governors that the "brinksmanship strategy" of shutting down the government and threatening default is something "the country can't afford." Obama made the comments to 25 governors on a conference call aimed at discussing the effect of the federal shutdown on state budgets and the overall economy, according to a White House readout of the call....... Obama was joined on the call by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, NEC Director Gene Sperling, Deputy Office of...

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.

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.

Today on NBC’s Chris Matthews’ show, Bob Woodward was one of the guests on the panel, and during the standard Q&A between Chris and the panelists, a couple of curious things came out of Woodward’s mouth. The first thing that caught my attention was when Chris played a segment of the inauguration where Obama said we “must begin again the work of remaking America.” Woodward began his comments by reminding us of the “if you will unclench the fist, we will extend the hand.” He says it’s obvious the big difference between Obama and Bush & Cheney is that Obama...

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...

Bob Woodward’s Monday-morning exclusive on a 66-page report from Gen. Stanley McChrystal to President Barack Obama about Afghanistan policy was a rite of passage for the new administration: the first major national security leak and a sure sign that the celebrated Washington Post reporter has penetrated yet another administration. White House officials greeted the leak with a grimace, but none suggested they’d begin a witch hunt for the leaker. Woodward is famous for his access to the principals themselves — he recently traveled to Afghanistan with National Security Adviser James Jones — and leak hunters couldn’t expect with confidence that...

The publisher's catalog says Bob Woodward's upcoming book on the Obama administration will portray the president struggling for control of his domestic agenda. Simon & Schuster will release the book, currently untitled, this fall.

NEW YORK (AP) - A Bob Woodward book on the Obama administration is coming out in September.

Wow, this is worse than I imagined. Bob Woodward, in his classic way of infiltrating a White House, has done so in his most recent book, Obama's Wars. The chaos from this book is frightening. There is no goal in mind. There is no end game. There is simply academic discussions that are never ending.

A senior administration official who read the book says "the President comes across in the review and throughout the decision-making process as a Commander in Chief who is analytical, strategic, and decisive, with a broad view of history, national security, and his role." The official says of the descriptions of the infighting in the book that "the debates in the book are well known because the policy review process was covered so exhaustively." White House officials are still matching New York Times excerpts with anecdotes in the book but one says not all the quoting is fair, especially Vice President...

Frustrated that his top military advisers failed to provide him an exit plan for Afghanistan, President Obama crafted his own strategy, according to a new book by Bob Woodward. In "Obama's War" -- Woodward's meeting-by-meeting account of the 2009 Afghan strategy review -- the president stressed that the plan to add 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation "needs to be . . . about how we're going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan. Everything we're doing has to be focused on how we're going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It's in...

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...

Washington, Sept 23 (ANI): An Afghan paramilitary force with a strength of 3000 well-armed troops, collectively known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, has been trained and deployed in Afghanistan not only for surveillance, raids and combat operations in Afghanistan, but also for the United States’ secret war in Pakistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, according to current and former US officials. While the existence of these teams is disclosed in ‘Obama’s Wars,’ a forthcoming book by famed journalist Bob Woodward, interviews with sources familiar with the CIA’s operations, as well as a review of the database of 76,000 classified U.S. military...

Early in Barack Obama’s term, he and his aides faced a rite of passage familiar to every White House for the past 40 years: What to do about Woodward? In Obama’s case, the answer came quickly: The White House doors swung wide for the world’s most successful non-fiction writer. Once inside, the author was treated to a buffet of access to bold-faced names—Biden, Clinton, Gates, Panetta—topped off with a sit-down with Obama himself. “Obama’s Wars,” Bob Woodward’s 16th book—the previous 15 have all been best-sellers and often dominated the news upon release—comes out Monday. Administration officials believe, but so far...

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...