In an interview with ABC News last night, President Obama admitted that he shouldn't have criticized Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan as harshly as he did.....to his face anyway.
President Obama said it was a "mistake" to criticize Paul Ryan and his budget proposal as strongly as he did during a speech in April 2011.
During that speech, in which Ryan sat in the front row of the audience at George Washington University, Obama specifically called out the House Budget Committee chairman's controversial budget reform proposal. Obama said that the plan painted "a vision of our future that is deeply pessimistic."
In an interview with Bob Woodward in July, Obama said he did not know Ryan would be sitting in the front row and that if he had, he probably would have toned down his criticism.
"And so I did feel, in retrospect, had I known — we literally didn't know he was going to be there until — or I didn't know until I arrived," Obama said, according to audio transcripts published by ABC News on Monday, a day before Woodward's book The Price of Politics comes out. "I might have modified some of it so that we would leave more negotiations open, because I do think that they felt like we were trying to embarrass him.
"We made a mistake," Obama added.
It's great to know President Obama is capable of admitting he made a mistake however, changing behavior based on who is watching at the time isn't exactly a confidence builder. Does Obama regret scolding the Supreme Court on Citizen's United while the Justices were sitting at his State of the Union address in 2010? Does he regret scolding House Republicans for their "gridlock?"