Obama vs Petraeus vs Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward is the best (and perhaps nastiest) blackmailer in Washington. Sure, you don’t have to co-operate with him but you know what will happen if you don’t. Those who talk to Woodward are always treated kindly by the great stenographer; those who decline his advances invariably become the villains.

Each time this happens it becomes easier for Woodward to persuade people to talk to him for his next book. And since his slabby books (really, like Thomas Friedman’s works they merit being called “tomes”) have become some kind of quasi-official instant history it’s always necessary to work out who has been talking and who has not and read between the lines* accordingly.

His latest, Obama’s Wars, is going to cause trouble. I suspect some folk will have a field day with Obama’s observation that “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever .