Day 4 from the DNC: Obama makes effective speech to shore up his political base but impact on undecideds like me is disappointingly negligible

Sen. Barack Obama gave the kind of speech last night that most certainly shored up his Democratic base.

The speech in an amazing setting was one for the history books. He left many of the people at Invesco Field in tears. He deserved the moment for a battle well-fought against a previously invincible political machine.

But in accordance with the criticsm from Sen. Hillary Clinton during the primary campaign, Obama's speech lacked the needed specifics -- particularly in how he would pay for all the programs promised and which programs no longer worked.

Closing tax loopholes on businesses is temporary. Businesses will adapt and adjust their spending and the kind of revenues racked up to reduce their tax bill.

He is going to cut taxes for 95% percent of Americans and raise them on the 5% left. I like that. But that will not be enough to cover all the costs of his programs. Fiscally, it sounds like a wash. And taxbreaks are always hard to take back. But you have to admire him for trying.

Obama if he becomes president will also be dealing with an economic recession. Don't expect the economy to bounce back for at least another year. Banks will start to fail next as will consumer confidence. All that means less revenue coming into state and national tax coffers.

Obama's criticism of McCain was direct and frequent. But his most direct point of attack -- that McCain voted 90% of the time with President Bush -- had some holes. In his votes, McCain supported No Child Left Behind, which has finally delivered accountability to the nation's education bureaucracy. He supported the prescription drug addition to Medicare, the largest boost in an entitlement program since LBJ's Great Society. He supported the administration unprecedented aid program to Africa to fight HIV and other disease.

Yes, I'm ready for Bush to leave office, too. But let's portray an accurate record. And when it comes to Iraq, McCain differed from Bush on how to conduct the war after Rumsfeld's disastrous tenure. The surge effort that has worked in Iraq was McCain's idea. In addition, as for who voted to go to war in the first place, McCain is as guilty as Obama's runningmate Sen. Joe Biden.

As for health care which is a primary issue for me, Obama is not promising universal health care. He is promising to make it more affordable with a mandate for the coverage of children. It is not universal care which Clinton pushed and over which she criticized Obama on the campaign trail.

As for the freedom of choice, Obama tried to stir up fears about abortion rights being removed across the nation with an adverse Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade. Actually, an adverse decision means the matter would be returned to the states for passing of laws outlawing choice. Even in Tennessee, I would not expect a clear law outlawing choice. And if there was one, it would take years. Already, the state Supreme Court has ruled that the state Constitution provides for more rights to choice than the U.S. one does. So lawsuits and court rulings would negate any anti-choice law for even longer. Others may disagree with my assessment, but I believe it to be a conservative one, no pun intended.

Obama had some great lines, particularly about Republicans wanting suffering Americans to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, even if they don't have a boot. His line about McCain's intent to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell but not to the cave where he lived was sharp. But while he was praising former President Clinton, Obama failed to mention that Clinton had a satellite photo of bin Laden greeting guests at a compound. Yet Clinton did not order a cruise missile attack to destroy the compound and bin Laden.

Unfortunately, and beyond Clinton's knowledge, 9-11 followed during Bush's first year. Obama did not cite that event in his speech and how it also changed the nation in the past eight years. That's pretty lame, and it will cost him with security moms who decide this election. Next week, the GOP will boast about no terrorist attack on U.S. soil like 9-11 since that fateful day -- an astounding accomplishment.

Obama was clearly right when he said that Republicans needed to finally own up to their failures. I agree wholeheartedly. But Democrats do, too. And Obama did not help them take a step toward political cleansing with this speech.

NPR's Juan Williams was critical of Obama for only citing Dr. King near the end of his speech as an afterthought. That's a tough call. Obama has not tried to run as an African-American candidate for president. He has run as an American candidate. So Obama has faced a sort of Jekyll and Hyde existence on the campaign trail. It must surely be a difficult situation to handle. One can praise him for his adeptness, or criticize him for avoiding the obvious. I lean toward praise.

So that's it. The DNC from Denver was interesting from the extent of the Clinton's capitulation and the strong attack on McCain and Bush. It also was most interesting from what was not addressed in prime time -- particuarly about comprehensive immigration reform and the need to treat undocumented workers and their families as human beings.

The explanation is that Obama wants to steer to the middle. Immigration and the inhumane treatment of undocumented workers would force his candidacy to say what it does not want to say in prominent places now. So don't bring it up -- a new version of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Hispanic voters will not revolt. They'll accept private assurances. But outside of them, undecided voters are going to demand more specifics on spending and what programs are going to be quashed. Security moms -- again, who will decide this election -- will want to know more about how Obama is going to make up for his foreign policy shortcomings. His first two decisions as a presidential candidate -- on Georgia and picking a VP -- were not reassuring.

Despite what Obama claimed last night, this campaign is still about him and his experience to be president of the United States of America. Now on to Minnesota and to rip into the Republicans.