Of all the low down, sneaky, dishonest political tricks, this one takes the cake.

Obama has had a sudden case of the regrets over exposing his children to the Access Hollywood cameras who had come to the Obama mansion in order to interview the candidate with his family around him.

What makes this so unbelievably craven is that his kids - like all kids - were cute as a button; spontaneous, clever, well spoken, and photogenic as hell. No doubt Obama got a lot of mileage out of those pictures.

Then, to deflect criticism that he was shamelessly using his children as political props, the candidate does an about face and lets it be known that he "probably" shouldn't have done it. Michelle Malkin transcribed this interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show:

LAUER: …some people said wait a minute, the senator is trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, you want to protect your private life. On the other hand, here you are sitting with your two daughters and allowing them to answer questions. Did you make the right call on that?

He's got no one to blame but himself for this bad judgment call that wasn't, to borrow Michelle O's phrase, good for his kids. Yet, Obama makes it seem as though the cameras just magically appeared from nowhere, taking him by surprise. As if the four-part interview were a spur of the moment decision that "suddenly...cropped up." Horse-hockey you can believe in.

A four-part interview that probably entailed hours of set-up, makeup, mic checks, and post-wrap schmoozing...and he "didn't catch it quickly enough."

Snort.