Reply #60: You are absolutely right. People *are* watching his speeches.

[Tatiana]

When Obama came on tonight EVERY network cut away from Clinton's speech. Even her surrogate pointed this out after she had to wait through Obama's speech on MSNBC. I kept waiting for them to cut away from the speech (as we've all heard it before), but they broadcast the thing in its entirety.

Hillary took the first shot when she said that words don't matter. Obama asserted that they did, and now he's got to back up that assertion. Hillary's camp scored a minor point when they started complaining that Obama was all talk, but no specifics. So then he started lining his speeches with all the specifics and details of his plans, but did you notice that in Clinton's speech tonight she told us to go to hillaryclinton.com to find out the details and specifics of her plans? That's because laundry lists of policies bore people to death. They want the cliff-notes sound-byte version and that's what Obama was giving people in the beginning and that's what, in part, propelled him to the success he currently enjoys.

If we really wanted to know the details about Obama's plans we WOULD go to his website and look it up. People aren't listening to his speeches for his policies so much as they like his inspirational speaking style and he makes them feel good. Yes, just like a pastor and as a former Southern Baptist, I know this plays well in the Bible Belt. That is why you have mega-churches like the Potter's House in Dallas, Cornerstone in San Antonio, Lakewood in Houston. (And on a side note, there is NOTHING wrong with courting these people. They are voters too and better have them vote for us than vote for the Republicans.)

So Hillary got Obama off his game for a moment. Save the policy specifics for the debates and town halls. That is where he will get the most mileage out of nailing her on social security, predatory lending, and health insurance mandates. I'm hoping he re-tools and gets back to what got him where he is. He can put this thing away with a good showing in Texas.