Remember that oft-replayed Chris Matthews interview during the 2008 election where the talk show host stumped a surrogate for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama with a series of seemingly simple questions: What has Barack Obama accomplished? Can you name anything he accomplished as a senator?

The flummoxed Obama supporter wanted to speak in generalities. He wanted to speak of how Obama inspires and of what Obama might do in the future. Matthews wouldn’t let him off the hook. Pressed by the Hardball host, the Obama surrogate just couldn’t name a single Obama accomplishment.

“I am not going to be able to do that tonight,” he finally relented. 

Well, in the 10 months Barack Obama has been president, has anything changed? Is there anything substantive Obama has accomplished or are people still talking about what the president might accomplish in the future?

Just look at the record. Obama is the Nothing President. He has no significant, positive achievements.

With the souring economy the president’s most pressing domestic concern as he entered office, Obama pushed through a gargantuan $787 billion stimulus package which, to date, is the only substantive piece of legislation he has been able to sign into law. But so far the stimulus has stimulated little more than the national deficit and the unemployment rate.  By the standard Barack Obama himself set, the bill must be judged as a failure. Obama promised the country that the stimulus bill would prevent unemployment from rising past 8 percent. Today, it stands at a whopping 10.2 percent.

Besides the stimulus package, the other domestic initiative that has so far consumed the Obama presidency is health care reform. While Obama can claim credit for getting closer to universal health care than any previous president, such an “accomplishment” doesn’t mean anything unless he actually signs a bill into law. Though the House recently passed a massive 2,000-plus page health care bill by a narrow margin, Obama is still a long way from a White House signing ceremony.

Almost no one believes that the bill that passed through the House will be acceptable in the Senate. As South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has said, the bill is dead on arrival in the more deliberative chamber. Even if a health care bill passes through the Senate, it will likely look nothing like the House bill. When the bills are merged, there is a real question whether Nancy Pelosi’s tenuous Democratic coalition in the House will stand and be able to pass the merged bill.

Not only does Obama have nothing to tout with regards to domestic policy, he so far has no major foreign policy triumphs.  Since assuming office, the president has bent over backwards to present a conciliatory message to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the hopes that his friendliness would persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear program. So far, his entreaties have been met with a clenched fist. Just last week, for instance, Israel intercepted a ship loaded with Iranian weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.  This is hardly the response Obama was looking for when he began engaging Iran.

Elsewhere in the world, Obama has failed to make a significant mark. There just isn’t much to speak of except fluffy rhetoric. There is certainly nothing positive to speak of.

In two months, President Obama will celebrate his year anniversary as president. If a health-care bill doesn’t pass, which it very well may not, what successes will the president highlight during his State of the Union address? It begs the question if President Obama will deliver the first ever silent State of the Union address.

There is no escaping that as of now President Obama is the Nothing President. But it doesn’t have to be this way. What if Nothing President became the Something President?

While so far Obama has failed to impress, this doesn’t mean things can’t change. While the final details are still unclear, some reports suggest that Obama is leaning toward completely fulfilling (or near completely fulfilling) General Stanley McChrystal’s request for 40,000 more troops in Afghanistan. The decision would be political risky for Obama, alienating many in his left-wing base, but it could give Obama a real chance to achieve a meaningful foreign policy legacy. If such a surge is responsible for turning things around in Afghanistan and preventing the country from falling into chaos or into the hands of the Taliban (and thus becoming a safe haven again for Al Qaeda), Obama will have achieved a real historical accomplishment.

Due to liberal overreach and the souring economy, it is not impossible to imagine the Republicans retaking the House in 2010. Ironically enough, this could help save the Obama presidency.

Balanced by a Republican-controlled House, Obama would be forced to moderate many of his legislative proposals.  Instead of pushing policies that are non-starters for most Republicans, the president could focus on achieving things that would find real bipartisan support, like sensible immigration reform that protects the border at the same time provides a path to citizenship for most illegal aliens that are already in the country. If change is what Obama truly seeks, with a Republican controlled House, Obama may actually have an opportunity to achieve real change by pushing through much needed entitlement reform.

So far Obama is the Nothing President.  But he could be more. He could achieve something real, lasting, and positive. First, he can help create a positive foreign policy legacy by surging in Afghanistan. To be something really special, he should hope that Democrats lose control of the House in 2010.