OBAMA ANTIGONISHTES:

NJ The book mentions that, deep down, the president's got a "Blue Dog" streak--that he's kind of a moderate who is locked politically into a fiscal philosophy that really is not his.

WOODWARD Yeah. I thought of calling this book The Divided Man because he's very smart and absorbs the arguments on both sides. Obama understands that we've got to cut things but also is a progressive Democrat, so the Divided Man looms large. And, so you see, he is trying to fix these things in negotiations. But he never carries it over the finish line.

NJ Is that a lack of will or a lack of needed support from the Democratic side of the aisle?

WOODWARD I talked to [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell about this, and he's saying on the super committee that the leader of the Democratic Party is not [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid; it's the president. And the president just stayed away from the super committee. They should have worked that out, and he presumably could have used his leverage. Now, he didn't. He called [committee Chairs] Patty Murray once, and he called Jeb Hensarling once.

NJ Throughout these fiscal discussions, Obama's intensity would vary?

WOODWARD He never kind of called everyone in and said, "We've got to do this. We've got to do something here." It was kind of Nicorettes and merlot with Boehner. But if a president insists on getting something done, it generally will get done. Look at Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Boehner and the Republicans are also responsible. They didn't work with one voice, to say the least. Just like Obama couldn't control Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

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