Obamateurism of the Day

There are actually a few OOTDs in this one clip from Barack Obama’s speech to Waffles Wyffels Hybrids last week (via Greg Hengler), but let’s just roll them up into one entry, shall we?

• “The economy’s gotten better than it was when I first took office” — This is perhaps the worst “are you better off” argument in presidential history.  Yes, we’re not hitting -8.6% GDP per quarter, as we did in the first quarter of Obama’s presidency, but I don’t think people thought Hope and Change meant 1.3% growth, either.  By the way, unemployment is still higher than when Obama took office, and now JP Morgan thinks it will stay above 9% through the next election.
• “There is nothing wrong with this country” — except for the 1.3% growth thing, and the 9.2% unemployment thing, and the $1.6 trillion deficit thing …
• “But when we’re divided, we end up having a bunch of self-infected problems” – Self-inflicted, champ, and by the way, this country has been divided since before it was a country.  Democracy and representative democracy aren’t needed as consensus management tools; they are needed to settle conflict over policy.  If Obama is shocked, shocked to find out that this country is divided after spending half a term in the Senate and another half a term as President, then that only speaks to his own cluelessness, not the state of the country.
• “We’ve seen over the last two years over 2 million private-sector jobs created” — Which, as almost everyone knows now, barely keeps up with population growth.  We need to add 100,000-125,000 jobs a month to keep up with the people who reach the age to join the workforce.  At either rate, 2 million jobs is actually losing ground; at 100K we would need 2.4 million jobs added, and at 125K it’s 3 million.  Obama is bragging about falling behind.

No wonder he went on vacation.  After creating that many gaffes in 100 seconds, he’ s got legitimate reason to feel as tired as the country has become of him.

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!