Meet the Amazing PhilBot 3000

• Bredesen let Paul House languish on death row even after exculpatory DNA evidence convinced the U.S. Supreme Court that no reasonable juror would ever vote to convict him again. The governor ignored a letter from nearly three dozen state lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, urging him to pardon House, who has advanced multiple sclerosis and can't walk or feed himself. Asked to explain his failure to act, Bredesen said, "Yes, he is ill, but he's not terminally, [dying] tomorrow ill.... I don't think it's appropriate for the governor to interject himself in this process." A judge later ordered House released, but prosecutors insist on trying him again.

• According to the governor, it's more important to "professionally maximize" the state's return on investment than to take a moral stand against genocide in Darfur. He told The Tennessean it's OK with him if state pension money is invested in Sudan. "I think you get into very tricky waters" if you tell fund managers "here's a political consideration you have to take into account," the governor said.

• Bredesen did nothing to help legislation to stop National Coal Corp. from blowing off the tops of Tennessee's mountains. That was all the more baffling because the legislature, at the urging of Bredesen, has invested more than $100 million to acquire and protect the land that's now in the coal company's crosshairs. The state bought surface and timber rights, but mineral rights belong to National Coal. Bredesen admitted he was only vaguely aware of the bill, even though proponents had given hours of alarming presentations about mountaintop removal mining to House and Senate committees. A House subcommittee killed the bill.

• The governor refused to follow other states in reporting the names of the dangerously mentally ill to the FBI's national instant background check system for gun purchases. That's even after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where the young killer could buy guns even though he had been found mentally unsound. To prevent more tragedies, Virginia Gov. Kaine quickly ordered his state to report the names. But Bredesen did nothing, saying it might cost too much to "aggregate that data."

Even when it comes to purely partisan politics, Bredesen can't make himself follow the party playbook. He blithely informed reporters that he actually discouraged Mike McWherter from challenging GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander this year. McWherter was the party's best hope against Alexander, and his withdrawal left the Democrats with a cast of no-name dweebs in this week's primary. Bredesen won't even say that he'll vote for the Democratic nominee against Alexander. "How I vote is my private business," he says.

The governor also has repeatedly pooh-poohed Obama's chances of winning Tennessee in November. To the Philadelphia Inquirer before Obama secured the nomination, he recounted this story: "Four guys in a booth said, 'Phil, sit down, we voted for you,' and so I did. And one of them turns to me and says, 'We're all Democrats, who are you going to vote for? Hillary or Hussein?' "

Bredesen has been bad-mouthing Obama—there's the No. 3 reason Obama shouldn't pick him. (Come to think of it, that might be No. 1.)

Democrats are supposed to believe in the power of government as a force for good in the world. Like a Republican, Bredesen seems to see government as a hindrance, the less the better.

After his 2006 reelection against token Republican opposition in the person of state Sen. Jim Bryson, some Democrats anticipated big new initiatives. Like many observers, they thought Bredesen had been playing like a conservative only to trick voters. Now that he was safely reelected, they thought he would reveal his true self. The joke was on them.

"Don't expect in my inauguration speech for me to roll out something that people say, 'Oh wow,' " he casually told reporters at the time, explaining that he planned instead "to try to solve problems when they come along."

One veteran correspondent was so taken aback that he asked the governor, "So you're going to coast?"

"You'd like to see somebody who maybe had a little more of a vision," one state Democratic Party executive committee member admits. "But on the other hand, the bar is set so low Bredesen doesn't have to have any vision. You just have to be thrilled that he's not Don Sundquist," referring to Bredesen's Republican predecessor whose name is now synonymous with ineptitude.

"It's frustrating," another party executive committee member says. "Here's a strong guy with a well-funded political organization. This is his time, his governorship. You'd think the guy would take a little risk, but he won't."

Consider Bredesen's major accomplishments. Stay with me here. This won't take long.

True, the governor's flying high this summer after enticing Volkswagen to Chattanooga with an incentive package that could top $500 million. It's possibly the most government assistance and tax breaks ever for an American auto plant. Most experts predict it'll eventually pay off for Tennessee's economy, and it was a major victory for a governor. But overall, his legacy is looking a little thin. For a can-do guy, Bredesen hasn't tried to do much.