PEWAUKEE — An animated and defiant Gov. Scott Walker, in his first public appearance since his recall election became official, conceded he’d learned a hard lesson about acting first and explaining later regarding the collective bargaining measures he introduced last February.

“If I’d spent more time making the case in January and February, I bet taxpayers would have said, ‘Governor, you have to fix this,’ ” he said Saturday. “Instead, I just went out and fixed it and explained later. I admit I learned a lesson from that and I’m going to spend a whole lot more time explaining things in the future.”

“But if I’ve got to be wrong on something, I’d rather be wrong on fixing something then talking about something I didn’t fix in the first place,” Walker said to applause from Waukesha County Republicans attending the party’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner Saturday evening at the Country Springs Hotel.