The fact of the matter, is that he was not in command and control, and not working together with his own party leaders (let alone Republicans). In fact, the Republican and Democrat party leaders were working more closely TOGETHER than Obama and his own folks !! LOL !

In the end, Obama got lucky that things went his way. The fact that he doesn't have a good and close working relationship with his own congressional party leaders says a heck of a lot of Obama's capabilities as a leader.

Or is that what Obama likes to call "leading from behind" ... LOL !

That's not how Woodward characterizes it in his article, and he's no Republican-leaning hack either. The president lost control of the situation, plain and simple. It was Obama's decision to veto and if he had, he and the Democrats would have suffered some MAJOR consequences. Boehner and the Republicans gave a little (i.e. they compromised) on the two-step debt ceiling increase, and this saved Obama's butt.

It is pretty clear that Obama was NOT part of the process and was a clear outsider. And he was NOT aligned with his Congressional leaders -- something that a president should be.

Of course, the gap between Democrat leaders and the president was also shown this past week at the convention, when under Obama's orders (and prompted by Republicans pointing it out) they hurriedly had to jam the mention of God and the Jerusalem-as-capital-of-Israel mention back into the Democrat platform. Obama okayed that platform after it was drafted, and then it was released. And once Republicans pointed out its glaring deficiencies -- and differences from the 2008 platform -- Obama ordered them quickly to stick it back in. And did you hear Villaraigosa have to vote THREE TIMES on the convention floor to approve it -- and then overrule the more than 50% who were AGAINST mentioning God and Jerusalem in the party platform? Seems a bit of "forcing" of the issue, if you ask me.

And it was beautiful to hear the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schulz try to spin that one.... LOL !

No ... no dischord in the Democrat ranks.

PowerStroker: Dischord = electoral failure

LOL !