Completely undermines that new populist tone he was supposed to be taking. Course, it wouldn't matter so much if he hadn't been so friendly to the banks at the outset.

Personally, I tend to judge people by their friends...among other things, of course.

Tone deaf still.

Yeah, they're so savvy they blew up their businesses.  They exploded their entire industry.  By the way Mr. President, I know other businessmen even more savvy who blew up and destroyed nothing and stole nobody's retirement.  Where's their $17 million dollars courtesy of your bank and financial industry bailout?

I mean who calls people who almost topple the whole entire world economy to the point where it has to be rescued by the American taxpayer, savvy?

Who defends giving those type of people 17 million dollars, more than the average American makes in a lifetime, for doing the above as the free market at work?

The free market he has lauded has created tent cities. It's taken houses and jobs from the very taxpayers that bailed those "savvy businessmen" out. It's got people with jobs worrying how they are going to pay for increases in gas, or electricity or health care when they have seen the real value of their wages plummet.

Not by a long shot.

Isn't the next question "what does 'savvy' mean in your dictionary, Mr. President, if these 'savvy' businessmen headed banks that came inches from failing and taking the entire US economy with them?"

And, really, what comfort are we to take that Obama knows these men?  And feels he needs to defend them?  I guess he has no freakin' idea how insulting it is to millions of people who don't know where the next mortgage/rent/car payment is coming from, how they will pay for health care, feed their families, heat their homes.

The only populism I think Obama supports is the kind that would enable him to count himself as a member of the moneyed class - if he doesn't already.  I mean this is a man married to a woman whose wife whined about the high cost of ballet lessons for her children, after all.

First of all, to my knowledge, irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn't brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses.

HuffPo says the WH is walking the statements back.

Administration aides insisted, in email exchanges with the Huffington Post, that the quote was largely overplayed. The story, they say, made it appear as if the president didn't mind massive compensation packages when he was simply stating that he didn't fault anyone for his or her personal or professional success. Moreover, they added, the president has made similar remarks many times before without getting the critical reception he received on Wednesday morning.

"The president has said countless times, as he did in the interview, that he doesn't 'begrudge' the success of Americans, but he also expressed 'shock' at the size of bonuses and made clear that there are a number of steps that need to be taken to change the culture of Wall Street," spokesperson Jen Psaki told the Huffington Post. "[That is] a sentiment he has consistently expressed since long before he took office."