Via Mediaite, actual quote: “As president of the United States, I’ve got a lot of responsibilities.” Responsibilities? Wasn’t he golfing on Saturday, May 26, ten days before the election? In fact, wasn’t he right next door to Wisconsin in Minnesota and Illinois the Friday before the polls opened? I do believe he was. Let’s see what important presidential responsibilities he was tending to that day:

On Friday, he visited Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a midday speech and three fundraisers. He departed late afternoon for Chicago and three more fundraisers that evening. The president stayed overnight in his hometown and spent Saturday morning at his old home before flying back to Washington, D.C., for a brief stop before heading to Camp David for some downtime.

So just four days before the recall elections in Wisconsin that the state’s Democrats have worked 16 months to win, with potential implications for November 2012, the leader of their party did six fundraisers for himself in surrounding states but couldn’t find time for even a quick stop? Think about it: As Wisconsin Democrats were busy getting voters to cast early ballots Friday and organizing for Tuesday, Air Force One flew overhead twice — from Washington to Minnesota and Minnesota to Chicago.

According to BuzzFeed, he held 13 fundraisers during the two weeks before the election. And even so, having had six days to come up with an excuse for why he refused to fly into Madison and risk a loser-by-association narrative in the aftermath, the best he and Axelrod could come up with is “I was busy” — when we know for a fact that he wasn’t. I can’t believe this guy’s still leading on InTrade.

Silver lining: The 15-paragraph PolitiFact apologia for why this statement is “mostly true” should be epic. (“Obama is correct that presidents have many responsibilities.”)