Groton - The key to breaking the gridlock in Washington may lie in leaders taking the time to establish real relationships with colleagues within their own party as well as the opposing one, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author Bob Woodward told an audience of public utility officials Monday.

"You need to reach a point where you realize that the person on the other side of the table is your best friend, because they're the only one who can give you what you want," said Woodward, Washington Post associate editor and author of 17 books who established his reputation with his exposé of the Nixon White House. Neither President Barack Obama nor the Democratic and Republican leadership, he said, has done the kind of "immersion" negotiating sessions that in the past have lead to breakthroughs in previously unmovable political logjams.

Obama, he said, "just doesn't like Republicans, and I think sometimes, he doesn't like Democrats." And within both parties, he said, "they're not working together. They're not communicating. That's part of the story about why we have this eternal gridlock."

Woodward made his remarks, drawing from his most recent book, "The Price of Politics," during his keynote address at the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners at the Mystic Marriott. The conference, which drew more than 200 public and private sector professionals in the utility field, continues through Wednesday. Woodward, best known for his investigative reporting with Post colleague Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal in 1972, spoke at the utilities conference at the invitation of Arthur House, chairman of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and a longtime friend.

Woodward said his initial reaction of disgust after President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for his role in Watergate crimes underwent a complete revision after repeated interviews with Ford. He came to understand, he said, that the pardon was not the result of a backroom deal, but of Ford's belief that a drawn-out Nixon trial would harm the country.

"In 1974, I was so sure this was corrupt, but now I understand that rather than corrupt, it was courageous," he said, noting that Ford "paid a giant political price" for the pardon because it resulted in his defeat to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

Woodward said he drew his conclusions about the causes and possible cures for current political gridlock after a process of "excavation" for his book, including extensive research of original transcripts and other documents and interviewing and re-interviewing numerous key players in the July 2011 negotiations about whether to raise the nation's debt ceiling to $2.4 trillion or risk default.

"It was the most intense period of (Obama's) presidency," Woodward said, because inaction risked provoking a global economic meltdown.

The episode, he said, exposed a weakness of Obama's skills as president: while he can move a crowd with his rhetoric, "put him in a room with three people and he doesn't come through as effectively."

During interviews with Obama for the book, Woodward said, he came to understand what the president cares about the most.

"He does not like war. It is a core view of his," Woodward said. "Let's hope he's smart enough and wise enough to realize that he who seeks peace must also prepare for war."

j.benson@theday.com