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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA appeared to take a shot Sunday night at his debate performance against Republican Mitt Romney last week.

Per the White House transcript, here’s what he told a crowd at a Los Angeles fundraiser, after a show that featured Jennifer Hudson, Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, and Earth, Wind and Fire:

These guys — and everybody here are just incredible professionals. They’re such great friends, and they just perform flawlessly night after night. I can’t always say the same. But here’s the good news, is we’ve got a better vision for our country. We have a better plan for the next four years. And that’s why we’re here tonight.

It was Obama’s most candid acknowledgment of what pundits and voters on both sides have said after last Wednesday’s debate — that Romney trounced Obama.

At the fundraiser, Obama also acknowledged that he “goofed up” in the 2008 campaign, noting that the mistakes didn’t come back to haunt him. And he got a dig at Romney in there, too:

“Back in 2008 – everybody always remembers the victory, but they don’t always remember the bumps in the road. Things always look good in retrospect. But in the middle of it, we were – we made all kinds of mistakes. We goofed up. I goofed up. But the American people carried us forward. And even with all the things we had going for us – all the way that things just kind of converged, 47 percent of the country still didn’t vote for me. I just want to point that out.”

- Brett LoGiurato