"I screwed up."

"I'm frustrated with myself, with our team. ... I'm here on television saying I screwed up."
-- President Barack Obama, speaking to Brian Williams on NBC's "Nightly News"

If there was ever any doubt that we've entered a new era and are making good progress on shedding the noxious, gangrenous waste of the last 8 years, it's sight of the President of the United States standing up and admitting fault, followed by...

"This is a self-induced injury that I'm angry about, and we're going to make sure we get it fixed."
-- President Barack Obama, speaking on ABC's "World News"

After 8 years of obfuscation, redirection of blame, counter-attacks, and incompetence, I had to read these comments twice (not having seen them live on TV) to make sure I hadn't slipped through into a parallel dimension where personal responsibility and leadership actually meant something. It's nice to know that if that parallel dimension does exist, some of that sensibility appears to have seeped through the cracks into our world.

Of course, the President's comments don't make me feel better about:

• the apparent plague of tax avoidance among major appointees (so the message is don't pay your taxes and you're OK as long as you don't try to help run the country)
  
• that these minor issues, like Tom Daschle's failure to pay $128,000 in taxes...$128,000!!!!!!...didn't show up as part of the almighty Obama administration job application,
• or if they did, that the administration vetters didn't realize they'd be an issue and left it to the press to discover them
  

Nevertheless, I am relieved that these embarrassments didn't get strung out and that President Obama stepped up and said "My bad and now we're going to fix it."

Quite a change from "Heckuva job, Brownie," wouldn't you say?