A word of advice from Watergate reporter Bob Woodward to President Obama: If you want to get anything through Congress, stay away!

Without any input from the president or the White House, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) hashed out a budget accord. Woodward says:

I this this budget deal worked, quite frankly -- let's go right to the center of this -- because Obama was not part of the negotiations. He is not a good negotiator.

On Fox News Sunday, Woodward said Ryan is strengthened by his ability to negotiation with Democrats, even if more conservative members of the Republican Party are miffed with him.

I think Paul Ryan comes off as somebody who no one -- even Bill is not going to say Ryan is a conservative. He is a conservative, but the philosophy he employs here is very significant: Sitting down with Democrats and saying, 'What is our common ground? What can we agree on?'

And it is indeed small, but it's a step forward. And what it does is strengthen Ryan, but it also strengthens Boehner in a very, very significant way. He got way over 300 votes for this, and he said I, you know, he castigated the ultra-rightwing and the outsiders. And so I think he's in a position maybe they can deal on some of these things. 

So maybe it's not such a bad thing that the president has played 150 rounds of golf in his presidency. And just think what might get done when the Obamas head off for a 17-day vacation in Hawaii next week!