After Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign launch, many commented on the lack of enthusiasm shown even by those featured in his ad — and that Obama didn’t bother to show up in his own spot.  There’s a reason for that, Obama told listeners on a conference call Monday night.  He doesn’t have time to get people enthused, so they need to do it themselves:

“I’m going to need you even more this time than last time,” he said, echoing the themes of Messina’s PowerPoint presentation to big donors. “I can’t spend 24 hours a day campaigning like I did in ‘07 and ’08.”

Why can’t he spend 24 hours a day campaigning, like he did the last time?  Presumably, it’s because he has an important job now.  But, er, Obama had a pretty important job then, too — as a US Senator.  In fact, as Jim Geraghty reminded us yesterday, that’s been a particular pattern for Obama in his political career:

This means in the 10 years between November 2002 and November 2012, Obama will have been a declared candidate for higher office or presidential reelection for 67 of those 120 months, almost 56 percent.

It’s good of Obama to admit that he played hooky for two of the four whole years he served in the Senate in order to run 24/7 for President, but anyone who has paid attention in the last two years won’t be surprised in the least to hear Obama leave it to others to do his work.  Whether it comes to budgets, stimulus packages, his own health-care overhaul objective, or war against Libya, Obama’s really only interested in starting projects, and usually can’t be found when the heavy lifting starts.

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!