Obama On The C-SPAN "Mistake"

Another bit of news from President Obama's interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer: he said he made a "mistake" in not putting health care negotiations on C-SPAN, as he had promised multiple times during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Hotline OnCall's Felicia Sonmez notes that his comments on the C-SPAN controversy--for which he took criticism as House and Senate Democrats sought to finalize a bill earlier this year--were in stark contrast to how White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had handled the question in late December.


Obama's comments from the ABC interview (posted by Sonmez):

"I think your question points out to a legitimate mistake that I made during the course of the year, and that is that we had to make so many decisions quickly, in a very difficult set of circumstances, that after awhile, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right."

More Obama: "But I had campaigned on process. Part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up transparency and I think the health care debate, as it unfolded, legitimately raised concerns, not just among my opponents, but also among supporters that we just don't know what's going on. And it's an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals."