Obama takes the hit on Daschle

In a series of TV interviews this afternoon, President Obama took some of the blame for Tom Daschle's withdrawal as his health secretary.

“I take responsibility for this mistake,” Obama said, according to excerpts released by Fox News Channel.

“We can’t send a message to the American people that we have two sets of rules -- one for prominent people and one for ordinary people.”

“I think Tom is an outstanding person. I think this was an unintentional mistake on his part, but a substantial one and there’s no excuse for the mistake.”

“Ultimately I have to take responsibility for a process that resulted in us not having an HHS Secretary at a time when people need relief on their healthcare costs. This is a mistake, probably not the first one I am going to be making in this office, but what I’m absolutely committed to doing is fixing it, getting a highly qualified HHS Secretary, and then making sure we start delivering some healthcare relief to families who so desperately need it.”

The president was more blunt on CNN.

"I think I screwed up," he said, according to excerpts CNN released. "And, you know, I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again."

"Well, I think my mistake is not in selecting Tom originally, because I think nobody was better equipped to deal both with the substance and policy of health care. He understands it as well as anybody, but also the politics, which is going to be required to actually get it done," Obama added.

"But I think that, look, ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for powerful people, and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes."