Obama admits he "screwed up"

Obama did a number of interviews today with the original intention of focusing on increasing support for a big economic stimulus package. But on the subject of Tom Daschle during an NBC interview:

Obama later added, "I'm here on television saying I screwed up, and that's part of the era of responsibility. It's not never making mistakes; it's owning up to them and trying to make sure you never repeat them and that's what we intend to do." He also offered one more mea culpa: "[S]o, did I screw up in this situation? Absolutely and I'm willing to take my lumps, you know that's part of the job here. But I think it's important not to paint a broad brush here, because overall, not only have we gotten in place a -- functioning government in record time -- but overall the quality of [the other appointments] are outstanding."

Obama was also on AC360 tonight with Anderson Cooper. I heard some of it on the radio; hopefully they'll upload some of the video on CNN.com.

EZRA KLEIN ALSO COMMENTS on the Daschle incident and observes that "this is what change looks like."