Bob Woodward to Fox: Budget Deal Worked Because Obama Wasn’t Involved

Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward told a panel on Fox News Sunday that the recently-completed budget negotiations between Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (R-WA) were successful because President Barack Obama was nowhere near them.

“This budget deal worked—let’s go right to the center of this—because Obama was not part of the negotiations,” Woodward said. “He is not a good negotiator.”

RELATED: Ryan on Boehner’s Attack on Tea Party: ‘Keep Those Conversations Within the Family’

“I think Paul Ryan comes off as somebody who—no one, not even Bill [Kristol] is going to say Ryan isn’t conservative, he is a conservative—but the philosophy that he employed here is very significant: sitting down with the Democrats and saying, ‘What is our common ground, what can we agree on?'” Woodward added.

“It is, indeed, small, but it’s a step forward. What it does is it strengthens Ryan, it also strengthens Boehner in a very, very significant way. He got way over 300 votes for this, and castigated the ultra-right wing and the outsiders, so he’s in a position maybe to deal with some of these things.”

[h/t NB]

Watch the clip below, via Fox News:

[Image via screengrab]

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