As is usually the case when Barack Obama has to speak extemporaneously for any length of time, the debate on Monday night provided a few nuggets for OOTDs. Today’s comes courtesy of Breitbart, Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, and Jim Hoft, and took place during Obama’s defense of his handling of the Arab Spring.  In it, Obama tries to boost his presidential bearing, but instead ends up channeling a different kind of leadership altogether (emphasis mine):

“So across the board we are engaging them in building capacity in these countries and we have stood on the side of democracy. One thing I think Americans should be proud of: when Tunisians began to protest, this nation, me, my administration, stood with them earlier than just about any other country.”

L’etat c’est moi? Combined with the tone of perpetual annoyance Obama tends to adopt whenever challenged, that sounded pretty arrogant — and Karl Rove noticed it afterward, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2bs7oqBb9A8

A couple points we had sort of Louis XIV moments by President Obama. “I said when I would take the shot, I’d take the shot.” Well, wait a minute Mr. President, you didn’t take the shot, the SEALs took the shot at Osama Bin Laden. And, then at another point he said, “The nation, Me…” and then proceeded to describe what the nation wanted to do. And, I thought it was a little unusual because again it came across as just a little pompous at times – Louis XIV masquerading as president.

Yes, although the L’etat c’est moi quote is more solidly attributed to Napoleon than to the Sun King. Besides, using Tunisia as a measure is hardly determining. We had no pressing national security issues in Tunisia at the time of the Arab Spring. We did have pressing national security issues in Egypt and Libya, which Obama made worse with his Arab Spring interventions, pushing out Hosni Mubarak and conducting a war to remove Moammar Qaddafi from power.

What was the result? Obama couldn’t even bring himself to call Egypt an ally a month ago after our nation – that would be not “me, my administration” — had based our national-security policy in the region on our alliance with Egypt’s Mubarak for more than 30 years. Eastern Libya’s terrorist networks now operate freely, including al-Qaeda. Obama can brag about the outcome in Tunisia, but in this case, one out of three is still bad … and let’s not forget that our embassy in Tunis was torched and nearly overrun in September, too.

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!