The bad news: Barack Obama didn’t learn his lesson from the July 2009 press conference debacle.  Recall that Obama professed that he hadn’t learned the details of the arrest of his friend Henry “Skip” Gates at his house in Cambridge, but felt sure that the police had “acted stupidly.”  He ended up having to backtrack almost immediately under a hail of criticism for not waiting until he’d learned the facts of the case, finally holding a “beer summit” between Gates and the arresting officer at the White House.

After having to extract his foot from his mouth very publicly over a period of several days in the summer of 2009, one might have thought that President Obama had wised up.  Instead, as Jim Geraghty points out, it looks as though Obama acted stupidly again:

It probably shouldn’t surprise us that President Obama begins his comments on the Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals with the words, “I’d say that I haven’t followed exactly what’s happening with the Wisconsin budget,” and then promptly declares that Walker’s plan “seems like more of an assault on unions.”

The good news: Wisconsin is an awesome state for a beer summit.

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!