I was trying to say how President Obama, who I admire greatly, is a private person, but I deeply regret how I said it. I apologize.
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) October 16, 2012
Center for American Progress (CAP) President Neera Tanden apologized last week for comments she made about her former boss President Obama. Here is what Politico says:
Former Obama aide Neera Tanden took to Twitter on Tuesday to apologize for some choice words she uttered about her former boss.
In an interview with New York magazine published on Sunday, Tanden had been trying to explain why Obama didn't call former President Bill Clinton for the first two years of his administration.
“People say the reason Obama wouldn’t call Clinton is because he doesn’t like him,” Tanden said. “The truth is, Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people. My analogy is that it’s like becoming Bill Gates without liking computers.”
Tanden, now president of the Center for American Progress, suggested in her mea culpa that it was a poor choice of words.
"I was trying to say how President Obama, who I admire greatly, is a private person, but I deeply regret how I said it. I apologize," she wrote.
There was another revealing part of her interview that she didn't address in her apology. Tanden also suggested that the president's renewing relations with Clinton was not genuine, but rather a calculated political move.Tanden became the President of CAP in November 2011. She has previously worked with both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and she was also a Senior Counselor for Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Obama.