It’s time once again to choose the Obamateurism of the Week, as have been traditional on Sundays since Obama took office last year. We hold these public polls to choose the winners, which is more transparent than your average Obama administration workshop on openness. The White House might gripe about these questions, but at least we’re not leaving anything out, especially when we’ve already written it in.
Previous “winners”:
- Accusing Rumsfeld of ignoring troop-increase requests for Af-Pak
- “Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency, its fitting that you and India be so recognized.”
- KSM to get a fair trial followed by a first-class hanging
- Bowing to Emperor Akihito in Japan
- Giving 2 minutes of “shout-outs” before getting to the Fort Hood shooting
- Accusing Cheney not focusing on Af-Pak just before heading out to 3 fundraisers and a golf outing
- WH retreats on Fox News war when other broadcasters object
- Obama declares war — on liberal bloggers and Fox News
- US was on “path to recovery” before durable goods orders fell, mass layoffs rose
- Obama goes to Copenhagen (and comes home empty)
- Taxes, definitions, auto insurance, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries
- Throwing Poland under the bus on missile defense on 70th anniversary of Soviet invasion
- Obama warns of “partisan scare tactics,” warns “people will die” if ObamaCare stalls
- Obama doesn’t check to see if schools in session for his national speech
- Getting all wee-wee’d up
- The “public option” is just like the Post Office!
- We’re going to listen to other people’s ideas, except that people who disagree should shut up
- Snitch Central for ObamaCare dissenters
- Rushing legislation bad in 2004, essential in 2009
- Obama opines on Gates arrest without “having all the facts”
- Obama salutes the Ghana flag
- Obama jokes about Alaska sale with Russians
- Obama uses union and DNC plants at health-care town hall
- Obama plants a question on Iran with HuffPo
- Change in Iran coming because “Obviously, after the speech I made in Cairo…”
- Flashing his soles to the camera while talking to Netanyahu
- “If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
- “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem.”
- Siccing Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel on tax cheats
- Phony Churchill quote on torture throws Grandpa under the bus
- Torture probe flip-flop
- Obama covers up IHS while quoting Jesus
- Austrian is a language?
- Obama bows to the Saudi king
- 1908 Model T got better gas mileage than today’s SUVs

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
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