CNN's Candy Crowley Grills Obama Adviser David Plouffe: 'Not a Plan

Top White House adviser David Plouffe took to the Sunday shows today, defending Obama's record and his re-election strategy.

On CNN with Candy Crowley, he encountered what was, for many, an unexpectedly no-nonsense interview.  Though certainly not acrimonious, Plouffe was visibly frustrated by the end of it.

Crowley began: "Is the fact that the president is saying virtually the same thing that he said four years ago when he was campaigning, a recognition that he has not been able to achieve his goals?"

As Plouffe responded, she interrupted: "Is that the, is that your economic message?  'We have more work to do'?"

Crowley then let Plouffe finish his points, before saying, "So, those are goals that he's setting out, but it's not a plan.  What does the next four years look like?  What's the big idea that people are going to vote on in November?"

She added that they've had "four years to do that," eyebrows raised, when Plouffe tried to respond.

Watch the clip below, via Mediaite:

Later in the interview, Plouffe said that "This Congress is standing in the way [of jobs]," after lambasting Republican politicians who have allied themselves with Mitt Romney.

Crowley pointed out: "[You think there will be] a better Congress [after the election]?  I just...there is nothing that looks in the cards, to me, [that indicates] somehow there is going to be a big change in the mix of Congress.  In fact, you might have a Republican Senate.  So why do you think what the president has been proposing since last September has any better chance in February?"

Plouffe then endeavored to say that, actually, Republicans are becoming more reasonable, before Crowley asked whether the appropriate place to make Friday's immigration decision wasn't actually in Congress, rather than by Barack Obama?

"He went around Congress is the point...[I understand] the reasons of it," she dismissed, when Plouffe began explaining Obama's motives.

"There's three branches of government, you know how this works."