If MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had asked me to name some of Barack Obama‘s legislative accomplishments (as he did last night with Texas State Senator Kirk Watson, causing him to look like a total doofus when he couldn’t name a single one), I would have said that legislative accomplishment and the give-and-take of relationships within a legislative body is considered to be a different game, requiring differing skills and strengths, than dispensing inspirational leadership and applying organizational focus.
I then would have offered to give Matthews the whole Obama legislative as soon as he names the legislative accomplishments of JFK during his eight years in the Senate. (He did next to nothing of historic proportion — he coasted.) And Bobby Kennedy‘s record during his three and a half years as a New York Senator…same deal. Tell me one drop-to-your-knees thing that Abraham Lincoln did in the Illinois legislature, I would also ask. The issue would be moot.