Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although this bugs me too, it's not incorrect. It's perfectly understandable in American English, and "correct" in other varieties of English.
They mean different things, no? If I were CEO, I'd do things differently. If I was CEO, I don't remember it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood
And it's one of those cases where knowing a foreign language can help you think about English a bit more clearly. It's mostly vestigial in English (which is why "if I was rich" is so common), but in a language like Italian, it's much more widely used (I think that ..., I believe that ..., I want ... and similar sentiments all require that you use the subjunctive), and it has obviously different verb forms: "penso che sia" instead of "penso che e`". It appears from that wikipedia article that Spanish is similar.