Hit the road, jug-ears.

 From Fox News:

Newsweek cover story: Has Obama been an effective leader? I don't think the answer is yes

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, the media has been accused of being in the tank for President Obama, but now a mainstream media publication is taking on the president. Check out the latest Newsweek cover with a blistering headline, "Hit the Road, Barack: Why We Need a New President." Its author, Niall Ferguson, joins us.

Nice to see you, Niall.

NIALL FERGUSON, AUTHOR OF NEWSWEEK COVER STORY: 
 Hello, Greta. How are you?

VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. All right, Niall, well, you must know that this cover certainly has caused a firestorm. In fact, even Paul Krugman has come out against you, and others. What prompted you to write this story?

FERGUSON: Well, hell hath no fury like a liberal blogger scorned. My prompting was simply frustration at the way the debate is going on during this election. As you can tell from my strange accent, I'm not an American. I'm a newcomer to this country. But I love this country and I want to see it turned around.

And I don't really hear the right questions being asked of the president about his record over the past four years. And despite all the furious denunciations I'm currently receiving from the likes of Paul Krugman, they are not addressing the key issues that I raise.

Number one, is the president an effective leader in Washington? Has he led effectively on the domestic policies of the day? And two, is he an effective commander-in-chief?

If you put aside all the nitpicking arguments about this and that, cost of Medicare and "ObamaCare," and knuckle down and ask those key questions, Has he delivered as a leader? Has he led effectively? I don't think the answer can be yes.

Now, I shared many people's high expectations of the president when he was elected. Though I was a McCain supporter, I had to concede that he had made the most effective campaign. But now four years on, we have to ask the tough questions. Has he really delivered as president? I don't think he has.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, the story is quite tough on the president. And basically, I assume -- I mean, you teach at Harvard. I assume that by at least what I read of the story, you'd probably give him an F as a grade. Is that a fair -- I mean, that's what I'm guessing from the article. Is that what you would give him on his presidency?

FERGUSON: Well, of course, as you know, very rarely are Fs given out at Harvard, Greta. This is more or less unheard of.

No, I think you have to allow for the fact that he inherited a tremendously difficult economy. And my argument is not that he should have waved the magic wand and taken us back to full employment. That would have been hard for any president.

I think the key problem with President Obama was, first of all, that he delegated the detail of legislation to his own party in Congress. And that is why the key legislation of this administration, the health care act, the stimulus, and of course, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill -- why this legislation is so defective.

It was essentially handed to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, et al in Congress, and left to them to design. And that was, I think, a very poor use of presidential power, say nothing of the fact that he had the greatest difficulty managing his team of economic experts, which contained some of the biggest egos on this planet.

So it's really that for which I would give him -- let me be tough in Harvard terms -- a B-minus.

Pussy. 

Let's give The Community Organizer From The High-Yellow Lagoon a participation medal while we're at it.

VAN SUSTEREN: I wish I'd been so lucky as to get into Harvard. I didn't know it was so easy -- I mean, that they only gave B-minuses. That's pretty good.

FERGUSON: I think we have to be fair, Greta. It was an extremely difficult situation he inherited. And the point of my piece is not to say, Oh, he should really have got us back to full employment. The point of my piece is to say, Was he an effective chief executive? And I think on that kind of question, when you look at how he's handled the power of the chief executive, the power of the president, he was not an effective leader.

Now, to go back to your introduction, the mainstream media, generally speaking, have shied away from saying that. Every now and then, we got the detail -- Ron Suskind's extraordinary book, "Confidence Men," which revealed the chaos that surrounded policy making in the first two years of the administration.

I mean, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. That's the kind of which is in the piece. The other thing, the very interestingly, my critics in the liberal blogosphere admit, is my critique of President Obama's foreign policy. They have -- look back and ask yourself how far was he able to build on what turned out to be a revolutionary wave in the Middle East? And the answer is he was completely wrong-footed by it.

VAN SUSTEREN: And -- and...

FERGUSON: It was the last thing he expected was a democratic wave in the Middle East.

 That's not what is happening in the Middle East.

VAN SUSTEREN: Niall, thank you very much.

FERGUSON: Greta, my pleasure.