Barack Obama spoke Tuesday at a fundraiser audience comprised mainly of Wall Street executives, who paid over $15,000 each for the privilege of having the President tell them that they were the cause of the financial collapse, and that they should shut up and back reform:

While I’m in New York, I want to stress something about this financial reform effort.  The financial industry is essential to a healthy economy and to the well-being of our economy.  That’s why we stepped in to prevent a collapse that would have had far-reaching and devastating consequences for the American people — steps, by the way, that were not wildly popular and still aren’t among the American people.  But it was the right thing to do.

But we also know we should never again have to face potential calamity because of reckless speculation and deceptive practices and short-sightedness and self-interestedness from a few.  So if there are members of the financial industry in the audience today, I would ask that you join us in passing what are necessary reforms.  Don’t fight them, join us on them.

That’s certainly not an Obamateurism.  In fact, I have nothing but admiration for a man who can get a roomful of people to cough up fifteen grand apiece to get insulted.  That’s a selling-fridges-to-Eskimos moment, in my book.

However, one part of the speech was simply laughable.  After reading off a list of supposed legislative accomplishments, with none of them specific except for Porkulus, Obama dropped this line on the audience:

If we stop now, if we didn’t do anything else for the next three months, we would have had one of the most productive legislative sessions in decades — already.

Er, what? This is the legislative session that got stuck on Obama Agenda Item #1 in July and still hasn’t finished chewing on its trillion-dollar cost.  In fact, with a 70-seat majority in the House and 60 seats in the Senate, Obama and the Democrats couldn’t finish doing the budget on time — which Republicans can’t filibuster under Senate rules.  They had to rely on a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating in October … and they still don’t have a budget passed.  If they take any longer, they’ll have to pass another CR.

That’s not a productive legislative session.  It’s an embarrassment.

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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