The bad news — Barack Obama’s latest claim on how many of his promises he has kept overstated the case, according to the Washington Times, which refers to Politifact’s “Obameter“:

President Obama has taken to claiming at recent political rallies and fundraisers that he has fulfilled 60 percent of his campaign promises from 2008, but the scorecard of an independent arbiter suggests that Mr. Obama is grading himself on a generous curve.

The watchdog organization PolitiFact.com, which evaluates the veracity of politicians’ statements, has tracked 506 specific promises Mr. Obamamade during his victorious presidential campaign three years ago and concluded that he has fulfilled 151, or 30 percent. Add the campaign pledges on which Mr. Obama has compromised to get part of what he wanted, and his “mission accomplished” tally still rises to just 39 percent.

Nonetheless, the president is telling supporters that he has worked three-fifths of the way through a checklist of initiatives that he keeps in his desk, making the pitch that he needs to be re-elected to finish what he started.

If you tally up those pledges that are still “in the works,” that comes to 37% alone.  Add in those “broken” and “stalled,” and the total goes to 59%, so perhaps he’s just confusing the percentages, and he meant to tell supporters that he still has 60% left to do.

The good news: Give Obama another month or so and he’ll come up with the correct percentage.

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.

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