Todd: Obama Relies on Rationality and Logic, Doesn’t Like Politics’ ‘Theatrics’

MITCHELL: "In the book, in the 'The Stranger,' you write about the IRS and way he approaches decisions so rationally. But sometimes politics it’s not rational. You say, '... The reliance on rationality and logic that so defines Obama and his White House ignores the irrationality of politics. The scandal [the IRS scandal] was not about the misguided actions of bureaucrats in some little-known agency. It was the IRS, the most hated institution in government. It reeked of the kinds of awful politics that had brought down the Nixon administration. The burden of proof, in the irrational world of politics, lay with the Obama administration, not with its critics.' He didn’t get that."

TODD: "He didn't understand that sometimes, you -- look, one of the most telling parts of the interview I did with him last September is what he said, you know, I don't always do the theatrics of politics. The IRS, his initial handling of IRS is a classic example of him sort of batching the theatrics of politics."

MITCHELL: "Politics are theatric."

TODD: "The politics is --the art of politics --and he's very good in campaigning, but behind the scenes politics is something --. I think he doesn't like it and if you don't like it then it's hard to be good at something you don't like. And I think he just simply doesn't like it. He thinks it's silly some of these games, that’s perfectly rational. But as president you sometimes have to participate the silly."

MITCHELL: "There's a lot being written right now about the fact that he is surrounded by 'yes' people and not by anyone willing to challenge him. Is that fair or is that just piling on because they've lost?"

TODD: "I think there is a little bit of piling in that. I don't think -- he isn't somebody that has — right up to 2010, he did spread his wings a little bit and he got outside advice. But it was funny -- in the book, one of the things that I think people don't realize is the advice he took to heart from Bill Clinton. That’s when they first began to sort of -- that's really the first time he sort of started appreciating the advice he was getting from Bill Clinton. It was right after the 2010 shellacking. Clinton said something to him; he said made too many changes. You know, one thing Clinton wasn't necessarily happy with how to take [indecipherable] years went in his presidency. So he was not always fully happy with it, I think. One of the lessons that President Obama took away from Bill Clinton --"

MITCHELL: "Not to compromise?"

TODD: "No. Don’t overreact, don't change too many of your advisors. So I think that's why he's kept circle tighter."