Barack Obama seems to have trouble with his economic citations.  Just last week, he noted a favorable review from what Obama described as a “non-partisan” economist … who just happened to be a contributor to his campaign.  Yesterday in Mansfield, Ohio, Obama told a campaign-stop crowd that Romney’s tax-reform plan had garnered an unfavorable review from “an independent, non-partisan organization … This wasn’t my staff.”  Ah, but that depends on the definition of wasn’t:

And you do not have to take my word for it. Just today, an independent, non-partisan organization ran all the numbers on Governor Romney’s plan. This wasn’t my staff. This wasn’t something we did. Independent group, ran the numbers.

Independent? Not exactly. The study at the Brookings Institute was co-authored by Adam Looney — and guess where Looney worked before his current gig?

Adam Looney is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and policy director of The Hamilton Project. His research focuses on tax policy, labor economics, inequality and social policy. Previously, Looney was the senior economist for public finance and tax policy with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and has been an economist at the Federal Reserve Board.

In fact, Looney worked for Obama for two years, 2009-10, on the same economic advisory board that brought us “shovel-ready jobs.”

So … “independent”?  “Non-partisan”?

Just wait until he starts citing Christine Romer as a conservative economist …

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!