In a pre-recorded interview with President Barack Obama aired on Sunday's Face the Nation, CBS anchor John Dickerson started to press the President modestly on Hillary Clinton's mishandling of her work email as Secretary of State and whether her behavior was consistent with Obama's 2008 promises of "transparency."

But, after the President twice gave a flimsy defense of Clinton's behavior, suggesting that it was just a typical "mistake" like those many Presidents have made, the CBS host instead of more aggressively pressing the issue, ended up backing off and wondering if "honesty" was even an important issue: "FDR and Lincoln were both talented at letting both sides of an issue think that they agreed with both of them. Is honesty overrated as a presidential quality?"

Dickerson managed to avoid noting that Clinton's behavior was in violation of the law as he first brought up the issue:

You built a team at the beginning, and you were rally clear about transparency. You were going to change the White House and be transparent to send a message to the country that felt let down people. She set up an email server that was neither in the spirit or the letter of that transparency. That's no small thing based on what you told everybody about transparency at the beginning.

After President Obama dismissed Clinton's behavior as just a "mistake" similar to those of other Presidents, Dickerson still avoided recalling the law-breaking aspect as he followed up:

But if you make mistakes, you've got to admit them quick and come clean. You said that about the Reverend Wright. You said afterwards, you said, "You know what, we learned. You got to get this done."

After the President engaged in more excuse-making, the CBS host backed off and posed:

FDR and Lincoln were both talented at letting both sides of an issue think that they agreed with both of them. Is honesty overrated as a presidential quality?

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Sunday, July 24, Face the Nation on CBS: