Barack Obama, June 29, 2011:

I think people should think of — look, I’m the President of the United States and I want to make sure that I am not engaging in scare tactics. And I’ve tried to be responsible and somewhat restrained so that folks don’t get spooked.

Barack Obama, July 12, 2011:

Scott Pelley: Can you tell the folks at home no matter what happens that Social Security checks are going to go out on August the 3rd? There are about 20 billion dollars of Social Security checks that have to go out the day after the government is supposed to go into default.

Obama: Well this is not just a matter of Social Security checks, these are veterans checks, these are folks on disability, their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out —

Scott Pelley: Can you guarantee as President those checks will go out on August the 3rd?

Obama: I can not guarantee those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.

There he goes again, being all responsible …

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!