or months, he mesmerized audiences with talk of “change,” “hope” and “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” His well-modulated tones and well-tailored clothes exuded an air that said, “Here is a leader.” Alas, the closer one looks at Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s record, the more the suit appears to be empty.

Take his chairmanship of the European Affairs subcommittee of the Senate’s Foreign Relations committee. During his tenure, the committee has barely met and has never held a hearing. Hearings are a Congressional Democrat specialty: showcasing favored positions, making goats of disfavored businesses or industries, ferreting out ostensible inefficiency and corruption. He had a golden opportunity to burnish his image in foreign affairs, but he ducked it.

For that matter, he ducked votes on countless issues and in at least one case, turned the truth on its head. One of his early ads claimed that he had “passed” a law that extended health care to certain returning veterans. Yet the bill cited, which passed by 91-3, was not voted upon by six senators, including Obama.

In three years in the U.S. Senate and seven in the Illinois State Senate, Obama has not been the lead or a principal sponsor of any legislation. Indeed, two of his three years on Capitol Hill have been spent running full-time for president. He used to talk about “coming together” and “reaching across the aisle” to create bipartisan legislation. In fact, he has had several opportunities to do so – for example, on Supreme Court nominees and immigration reform – and has taken a pass every time.

With such a thin record, Sen. Obama routinely falls back on résumé inflation. Recently, he said, referring to an action a few days earlier, “We passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee – which is my committee – a bill…” He is not a member of the Banking Committee.

Obama frequently refers to his “20 years of public service,” yet three years in the U.S. Senate and seven in the state senate add to only 10. Apparently, he thinks those who have been enchanted by his charisma will not remember these small details.

Flip-flopping or “adjusting positions” on issues (to put a finer point on it) has also become routine for Obama. In the primaries, he specifically rejected Sen. Hillary Clinton’s proposal to extend the ceiling on Social Security taxes to people earning over $200,000. Now it has become his position.

He also backed merit pay for teachers during the primaries, but once he faced a union audience at their convention, he opposed it.

Obama has had several important positions and made little of them. Before his elected offices he was, for 12 years, on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, but produced not a single scholarly paper. He spent three years as a “community organizer” on Chicago’s south side, but we never learn what he accomplished, other than attending Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Sunday tirades.

Today, he and Republican Sen. John McCain are essentially tied in the polls. Obama’s positive rating is down, his negative is up. Worried that he has allowed himself to be defined by his opponent, he has launched an intense negative campaign against McCain. McCain is so well known to the public, it is doubtful that previous assessments of him can be easily changed. Meanwhile, Obama seems to hope that such attacks, coupled with flashes of charisma, will coast him into the White House. It’s not a sure bet.

Peter Hannaford is the editorial pages editor of the Eureka Reporter, and held senior positions in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns.