Choose the Obamateurism of the Year: The second-chance flight

We’ve been highlighting the amateurish stumbles of our new President since March, and now it’s time for Hot Air readers to pick the Obamateurism of the Year!  Over the next few days, I’ll offer polls in different brackets (or “flights”) of previous Obamateurism of the Week winners, and you’ll pick the winners between five or six selections in a new poll each day, except Christmas.  I also hand-selected a few second-place winners in a second-chance bracket, which will run next week.  After we’ve narrowed down to eight finalists, Hot Air readers will select the OOTY!

All but one of the slots in the OOTY finals — the Embarrassing Eight — have already been filled:

• Obama bows to Saudi King Abdullah
• Warning on deficits and spending while pushing big-spending programs
• Change in Iran coming because “Obviously, after the speech I made in Cairo…”
• Obama opines on Gates arrest without “having all the facts”
• Throwing Poland under the bus on missile defense on 70th anniversary of Soviet invasion
• Obama goes to Copenhagen for Olympics (and comes home empty)
• Giving 2 minutes of “shout-outs” before getting to the Fort Hood shooting

Nice job on yesterday’s poll — it was a tough one, to be sure.  But we’ve had some tough polls for the OOTW this year, and some close calls.  For the final slot, I decided to pick eleven close-call second place finishers from OOTW polls during the year.  Which of the runners-up deserves a second look for an OOTY?  Bringing the war in Iraq to an “irresponsible end,” putting Tonsil Vultures and Foot Rustlers in charge of your medical care, 20 centuries of the American Constitution, or one of the other near-miss OOTW candidates?  Make your pick!

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.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!