Time to walk the walk

New York Daily News: Sen. Barack Obama is running for president as a Man Above It All.
He derides the "smallness of our politics" and pledges to be the president who can bring the nation together. His book titles -- "The Audacity of Hope," "Dreams From My Father" -- reach for grandiloquence.
Obama goes so far as to suggest he's leading a movement, not a campaign, and would-be presidents need not churn out lengthy policy proposals. "They say, well, we want specifics, we want details, we want white papers, we want plans," he said at the start of his run. "We've had plans, Democrats. What we've had is a shortage of hope."
But eloquence and aspirations can't win a war or keep America the world's economic leader and safe from terrorism. So when Obama's rhetoric goes haywire -- as it did when he said tornadoes killed 10,000 in Kansas, or when he called the lives of Iraq war dead "wasted," or when he compared the Virginia Tech massacre to the "verbal violence" of Don Imus -- he falls further than other candidates because rhetoric is the foundation of his campaign.
Obama must show he understands that charisma cannot produce consensus, candidates are not prophets and speechifying isn't leading.
Novel plan
The man has begun to fill in outlines. While his anti-war position is clear, last month he gave a speech calling for a bigger military and made clear America should not hesitate to use force in the face of security threats. In Detroit last week, he unveiled a somewhat novel plan to encourage production of fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. He is getting more detailed on health care.
Now, he needs to step it up. He needs to show he will answer tough questions, with specifics, even if it threatens the "consensus" he seeks to ride into the White House.