Obama Admits First Mistake as President-elect

Barack Obama admitted his first mistake as president-elect Tuesday.

Obama said during a news conference he was wrong when he sat McClatchy reporter Steve Thomma, a White Sox fan, in the Cubs section during a Monday news conference.

“This is part of the new way of doing business: We admit mistakes when we make them,” Obama said in calling on Thomma during the question-and-answer portion of Tuesday’s event.

Thomma made his displeasure about sitting in the Cubs section known by writing about it in Monday’s press pool report.

“It’s noteworthy that the press seats at the news conference have been divided into a White Sox section — to the South — and a Cubs section — to the North of the ballroom,” Thomma wrote. “But in a crime against nature, your pooler — a genuine White Sox fan, a man who attended his first twi-night double header at the Old Comiskey in 1963, who sat behind third base for the 50th anniversary All Star Game there in ’83, who knew Bill Veeck and the wonders of Disco Demolition night, who saw the great Ozzie play before he managed – has been assigned a seat in the Cubs section.”

When given a chance to pose a question Tuesday, Thomma asked the president-elect about the role of tax cuts in the upcoming stimulus he plans to propose. Obama said that he will look to include measures in the stimulus that help the economy in both the short-term and the long-term, such as a middle-class tax cut and the modernization of medical records.