You know an executive is in real trouble when he tried to bolster confidence by asserting that without his expertise, the current disastrous situation would have been … somehow more disastrous. It’s as if the head coach of the Detroit Lions tried telling the city that without the kind of leadership that took them to a 2-14 record in 2009, they might have finished 0-16! Barack Obama tried that last week, as Allahpundit noted, and it’s worth an OOTD revisit:

Er,sure, pal.  Let’s remember that this was the economic genius who claimed that spending $800 billion of taxpayer money that didn’t yet exist would keep that unemployment rate below 8%, too — and now we’re supposed to be glad that unemployment isn’t 13% or 15%?  Just to make the point clear, let’s recall the chart I published on Saturday which shows exactly how Obama’s economic leadership has “improved” American employment.  Look at the percentage of the civilian population that is participating in the workforce:

The red star shows when Congress passed Porkulus, and as everyone can see, the percentage has dropped steadily except for a dead-cat bounce in 2010Q1 — and it’s dropping again now.  Remember that the unemployment rate only counts those who are actually participating in the workforce, which makes the 9.5% level just announced seriously misleading.  If we counted the people who were in the workforce when Obama took office, it would be in solid double digits.

As for the Dow, of course it looks a lot better than it did a year ago today — but perhaps Obama should have checked its performance over the last few months before bragging about it:

Looks like we’re heading back to Square One there, too.

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!