I know that Eleanor Clift included this anecdote in her Newsweek article as a slam at Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, but as I wrote yesterday, it says a lot more about Barack Obama than his Cabinet appointee.

Internally, some have questioned Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s role in overseeing the efforts, noting that the Nobel laureate with the keen grasp of physics at times seems to lack political skills. On one occasion, Chu prepared a dense PowerPoint presentation to brief Obama on the complexities of last summer’s BP oil spill. After Chu narrated six slides, one senior adviser who attended the meeting recalled that Obama simply stood up and said, “Steve, I’m done.”

Remember when the media described George W. Bush as “intellectually incurious”?  I’m pretty sure that Bush could make it through more than six Power Point slides explaining a severe environmental accident.  A Cabinet Secretary shouldn’t need “political skills” to get a President to pay attention on issues of importance.

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!