Hot air + one bill enacted = an Obama presidential record noteworthy for its mediocrity

Obama’s strange way of approaching governing goes back to his first days in office, when he announced that he would close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay even though he had no idea where the prisoners would go.

More recently, Obama let Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. designate Manhattan as the location of a civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed without checking with law enforcement officials to see what impact such a trial would have on the security of the city.

Obama’s lack of basic executive competence should come as no surprise. Beyond his own campaign and his senatorial office, Obama never ran anything.

Only one of the measures Obama proposed as a U.S. senator was enacted: a bill to “promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

It would be difficult to imagine a more mediocre record. Yet with the help of fawning reporters, Obama managed to parlay extraordinary speaking and political skills into a presidential campaign built on hot air.