CBS' Norah O'Donnell: Obama was the 'Adult in the Room' During the Shutdown Standoff

Here’s a riddle: How could Barack Obama have been the “adult in the room,” as Norah O’Donnell says, when by his own strategy he avoided being in the room at all?

CHARLIE ROSE: “It’s an interesting conversation the President has. He seems to be wanting to identify with the frustration in the country – to point out there’s been economic loss – but did say, we can’t let this happen again, and we need to work together.”
NORAH O’DONNELL: “And I think, also, to be – sort of, the grown-up in the room, and to look forward and say, here are the three ways we can now work together. And I think he’s gone back to the message that has been a signature message for – for President Obama – we’re not Democrats; we’re Republicans – we’re Americans – that disagreement should not mean dysfunction. But I think we’ll see what happens in the coming months.”
CHARLIE ROSE: “Republicans will probably be saying, these are words – how do we define action?”
NORAH O’DONNELL: “Indeed.”

This is two liberals talking among themselves about how great another liberal is.

During the shutdown, Barack Obama refused to negotiate at all, while his executive branch agencies did the “adult” thing and shut down memorials, parks, restaurants, part of the ocean, and parking lots to make the partial shutdown hurt worse than it had to. They locked old people in a hotel and shuttered a self-sufficient colonial farm. That’s being the “adult in the room?” Seems to me it’s being the biggest jerk in the world.