Obama has plenty of substance. he puts it on his website rather than his stump speech.

[Perky]

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Policy folks want substance...fair enough. but it does appear that inspiring speeches and grand themes are what puts asses in the seats and brings voters to the polls.

[crispini]

1. Agree. If you want the details, they're all on his website. Reams of it.

But, not putting it in the speeches does leave him open to what people are saying.

[OHdem10]

2. The problem can be. People each indivdidualy thinks he

believes as they do. When he becomes president, many people maybe
sorely disappointed because they wrongly projected his meanings.

[woolldog]

3. I don't recall

political stump speeches ever being filled with the kinds of policy specifics that people demand of Obama.

Did Reagan get into policy minutiae when he was running? Did Dukakis? Did Bush? Did Mondale? I don't think so.

[Exultant Democracy]

4. Remember when this all started Obama got shit because he was too cerebral and policy heavy.

[Mojambo]

5. Actually Hartmann was citing a poll the other day that showed something like 94% of the people

make decisions on who to support based on emotion and how a candidate makes them feel rather than what kind of details they talk about.

I'm making no judgment on whether that's a particularly good thing or not, but it certainly does seem to be in effect during this primary. I think keeping the details online and freeing up the stump speeches to play strictly to emotion has been a genius stroke by Obama. He read the field perfectly.