If there’s one consistent quality to this President, it’s … inconsistency.  Or at least, it’s his consistent inconsistency for applying his standards equally to himself as with others.  Andrew Malcolm noticed this in Barack Obama’s press conference earlier this week when he scolded members of Congress for being too stubborn in their positions:

On the congressional supercommittee’s apparent deadlock with less than two weeks to its deadline– “It feels as if people continue to try to stick with their rigid positions rather than solve the problem.” Time for the committee members to “bite the bullet.”

Andrew remarked, “So, congressional members sticking with their positions is rigid. But the White House sticking with its positions isn’t?”  In fact, it’s not difficult to recall when the Obama White House considered rigidity a virtue.  That’s because it was just two months ago:

Obama’s top political adviser David Axelrod said Tuesday that the administration was unwilling to break up the president’s $447 billion jobs plan if Republicans were only receptive to passing certain elements.

“We’re not in a negotiation to break up the package. It’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving,” Axelrod said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

And let’s not forget every day since, as Obama refused to meet with Republican leadership in the House to work on a compromise bill that both Democrats and Republicans could support.  Instead of negotiating in good faith on a jobs bill, Obama refused to abandon a bill he couldn’t even get Democrats to back, and stomped off in a snit to launch his “We Can’t Wait” strategy of executive diktat in order to avoid having to abandon his own rigidity.

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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