I know that the media likes to extol Barack Obama’s supposed similarities to Ronald Reagan, but one might hope that the President knew better than to believe his own press. Of course, one would also hope that Obama would get a fairly well-known reference to Reagan’s early career right, too (via Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin):

“The most challenging problem was what tie to wear. And this went up to the very last minute. I mean, 10 minutes before we were about to go on stage we were still having an argument about ties. I had bought five, six ties. And Michelle didn’t like any of them, Axelrod didn’t like a couple of them — him being one of the best dressed men in the world. So we really valued his opinion.

“And then somebody — I don’t remember who it was — turned and said, ‘You know what? What about Gibbs’ tie? What about Gibbs’ tie? That might look good.’ And, frankly, Robert didn’t want to give it up because he thought he looked really good in the tie. But eventually he was willing to take one for the gipper, and so he took off his tie, and I put it on. And that’s the tie that I wore at the national convention.”

First off, the phrase is “take one for the team” in the sense that Obama meant, and “win one for The Gipper.”  Apparently, it’s all about Obama. There is no “I” in “team,” but at the White House there is an M and an E.

Second … now Obama’s The Gipper?  He can’t come up with his own nickname?

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!