So, did everyone hear Obama's open mic night?

It was all over the news and all over the 'net. To me he sounded pretty egotistical in the one paragraph, but the comment that shocked me (highlighted in yellow) was later on in this article:

CHICAGO - President Obama gave supporters in Chicago a glimpse of insider Washington during a fund-raiser the other day, privately critiquing House Republicans, government workers, even the White House telephones.

The words weren't that newsworthy, but their delivery had the White House a little red-faced Friday. Unbeknownst to the president, his remarks late Thursday night were being piped into the White House press room, where a couple of veteran reporters took notes.

Obama ridiculed recent GOP efforts to whittle away at the health-care law "by nickel-and-diming me in the budget."

"You think we're stupid?" Obama said he told the Republicans, according to the comments, overheard by Mark Knoller of CBS radio.

White House information technology isn't what he expected, in the appraisal of the president, who said, "We are, like, 30 years behind."

"The Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff," Obama said, according to Jim Kuhnhenn of the Associated Press. "I'm like, c'mon guys, I'm the president of the United States. Where's the fancy buttons and stuff, and the big screen comes up?"

Obama defended federal workers, saying he thinks they compare favorably with private-sector workers. But government employees may find more memorable his description of exceptions to that rule.

Some government workers, Obama said, are "slugs and not trying to do their job," according to Knoller's report.

The comments, during an overnight trip to Chicago for his campaign kickoff, showed the president in casual mode, a rare departure from his highly disciplined and scripted operation.

The intended audience for the remarks, at MK restaurant, were 50 or so Democrats who gave the maximum contribution - and got a little something extra for their $38,000 and change.

The experience may have caused Obama flashbacks. He thought he was in a journalist-free fund-raiser three years ago when he made his famous observation that some Americans "cling to guns or religion" out of frustration. In fact, a writer for the Huffington Post was there.

Press secretary Jay Carney said Friday that Obama was not embarrassed about anything he said Thursday night, because it wasn't anything he wouldn't say in a public venue.

Still, things are likely to be a bit more scripted next week, when Obama holds three town-hall-style events to explain his deficit-reduction proposals.

Obama will appear in Virginia on Tuesday, then travel west for a town hall at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. He will speak Thursday in Reno, Nev.