Remember when Barack Obama argued last week that the economic problems facing the US stemmed from cuts in the public sector?  Turns out that Obama only likes to blame government cuts when he’s not taking credit for government cuts.  On Friday, Obama had this to say:

The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government — oftentimes, cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government.

Exactly one month earlier, though, Obama took credit for shrinking the size of government:

The only time government employment has gone down during a recession has been under me. So I make that point — I make that point just so you don’t buy into this whole bloated government argument that you hear.

The juxtaposition prompted the Romney campaign to put the two statements side by side in this web video last night:

Just remember — Obama was for the $87 billion before he was against it against the government jobs before he was for them.  Besides, he’s wrong on both counts.  Federal government jobs — the jobs for which Obama is directly responsible — have increased by 29,000 during his term in office.  When Democrats controlled Congress in the first two years of his presidency, federal jobs increased by 83,000, and peaked in March 2011 at 89,000 above the level when Obama took office.  At that point, Republicans forced him to compromise on the remainder of the FY2011 budget — and by the end of the year, the federal workforce had trimmed 43,000 jobs, with another 12,000 reductions this year so far.  One party seems at least a little interested in getting rid of bloat, but it’s not Obama and the Democrats.

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!