You know, I’m usually the first to say that the demand for instant gratification has become an epidemic. People don’t have patience for complex solutions to complex problems. But is it really true, as Barack Obama asserted on Saturday, that 28 months amounts to “overnight” in terms of expectations for recovery?

I wish I could tell you there was a quick fix to our economic problems. But the truth is, we didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we won’t get out of it overnight. It’s going to take time.

CNS News provides the context for this quote:

Since President Obama signed the stimulus law, the Congressional Budget Office has also re-estimated its true cost to be $830 billion.

In fact, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published in May, the maximum number of jobs created or saved as a result of the stimulus through the second quarter of this calendar year (which ends in June) will be 2.9 million.

The CBO estimated that it was also possible the jobs created or saved by the stimulus by the end of this quarter might be as few as 1.0 million.

More importantly, according to the CBO, the economic impact of the stimulus is already waning.

“The effects of ARRA on output peaked in the first half of 2010 and have since diminished, CBO estimates,” said CBO. “The effects of ARRA on employment and unemployment are estimated to lag slightly behind the effects on output; CBO estimates that the employment effects began to wane at the end of 2010 and continued to do so in the first quarter of 2011.”

In other words, we’re not talking about “overnight.” We’re talking about two long years in which Obamanomics has suppressed a normal recovery. But look on the bright side; we’ll get a chance to change presidents in less than 17 months, which will hopefully feel more like overnight than the last 28 months.

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!