Book portrays dysfunction in Obama White House

By Peter Wallsten and Zachary A. Goldfarb,
Washington Post
Published: September 16

Obama administration officials scrambled Friday to hunt down copies of a new book scheduled to be released next week that paints an unflattering portrait of a dysfunctional and acrimonious White House that sometimes stymied President Obama’s effort to rescue the country’s economy.

The book, “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President,” by journalist Ron Suskind, comes at an inconvenient time for an administration that increasingly finds itself on the defensive over questions of effectiveness. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the book Friday.

This week, one prominent Democratic strategist, James Carville, said Obama should “panic” and fire much of his staff, and a Republican victory in a special House election in a heavily Democratic district in New York raised concerns among Democrats about Obama’s ability to win strong support from core party voters in next year’s reelection campaign.

Moreover, some Democrats are voicing frustration with a West Wing strategy they say allowed House Republicans to outmaneuver the president during the summer’s debt-ceiling talks.

(More here.)