Critics say Warner’s fixes came too late — strategically delayed in time for an election year roll-out. Warner said he first wanted to see how the Affordable Care Act worked.

“I thought it was important to see where the real problems are with this legislation and then lay out very specific changes to it,” he said.

Warner doesn’t shy from admitting when he has been wrong.

Take his previous support for a balanced budget amendment, which he called for during his first, unsuccessful Senate bid in 1996. Later, as a U.S. senator, he voted against it. Why the flip flop?

“I actually had to govern,” he said. “A balanced budget amendment for most candidates is an excuse not to give a real plan on how you’re going to get to a balanced budget. It’s a political sound bite that does nothing,” he said — a snipe at his Republican opponent, who has repeatedly called for such an amendment.

His four-year term as Virginia’s governor was “a lesson of the practical world,” Warner said. “I would not call California or New York — states that have balanced budget amendments — fiscal circumstances that I’d want Virginia to have.”