There’s nothing wrong with running for public office because you want to win.  Winning is good.

There’s nothing wrong with running for public office in order to become the first African-American person elected as President of the United States.  This is also good.

As political and social statement, winning and being the first to win, are both powerful and long-lasting persuasions of our virtue as a country.  These are the accomplishments achieved on election and inauguration day, and that is when the winning part and the first African-American part end.

At the end of the movie, The Graduate, Benjamin and  Elaine  escape from the church, catch a bus, and grab the back seat.  The last scene is of the two  sitting there, the church entrance beginning to fade through the bus’s rear window.  Their expressions move from smile to grin to question – - “Okay, now what?”

It’s easy to imagine that same progression of expressions across the faces of President Barack Obama and his staff a year ago this month.  As the President’s first State of the Union address approaches in two days, the country is still waiting for the answer.

Election and inauguration, ideally, are followed by governing, and that was then and remains now the answer.  Obama gave himself a B+ for a first year grade, and if intention and earnestness were the only criteria, the grade is probably close.

However, his abrogation of governance to Congress for all of his major initiatives, those intentions he so earnestly speaks of, has resulted in no measurable forward movement.  The single accomplishment of his first year, in fact, is in form without substance.

The stimulus package in March of last year was that single accomplishment.  Amusingly, three of his Administration spokespeople on yesterday’s Sunday round of talk shows gave different answers to questions on the package’s effectiveness.  It either created thousands and thousands of jobs, or it created and/or saved two million jobs, or it saved a million jobs.

Wall Street was nervous last February and March, not even treading water at the time.  Passage of the stimulus bill, if nothing else, showed that the Administration would not repeat the errors of eighty years go – - which was to do nothing in the face of economic failure.  The willingness to do “something” was enough, in and of itself, to convince investors to stay the course, leave their heads and their money in the market.

Their having done so created no new jobs, and didn’t help Main Street, however.  Unemployment rose above 10% and remains there today.  True unemployment (those without jobs plus those who have stopped looking) is well above that.  But, if truth be told, we’d be in far worse shape had Wall Street investors bailed last March, and that is the form of Obama’s single success.

“Support us because it didn’t get as bad as it could have” is not the stuff of which winning campaigns are made, and no smart politician wants to pull that out of his or her briefcase for the mid-term elections next fall.  However, that is the starting point for the campaign spin machines as this election year begins . . . . “it’s not as bad as it could have been.”

The message in Wednesday’s State of the Union address will be populist, for sure:  Jobs, Jobs, and Jobs will likely take up three-quarters of the President’s words.  Many on Main Street will properly ask where he’s been these first twelve months and why it’s taken him so long to “get it,” and they’ll not likely ask it nicely.

Main Street has both the right and the duty to expect the President to lead and to demand he govern.  The winning part ended fourteen months ago, and lasted just moments.  The governing part is now twelve months late, and it’s time to get to it, Mr. President.