If Barack Obama wants to get a serious bounce in the polls from his speech tonight, the gifted speaker should eat some humble pie and copy dull old Al Gore.

At the 2000 Democratic Convention, Gore gave one of the best acceptance speeches in recent history. And by "best" we mean a 17-point bounce in the polls.

Until he spoke, the then-vice president had endured three bad convention nights and netted no upward bounce. His running mate's speech, given by rhetorically challenged Joe Lieberman, had fallen flat, while Hillary and Bill Clinton stole the show.

But Gore's speech brought him from a seven-point deficit to a 10-point lead.

By Election Day, of course, the race had tightened into a nail-biter, largely because Gore blew the debates. But he gave himself a better send off coming out of his convention than any recent candidate.

But what can Obama learn from Gore? Well, Gore basically gave a State of the Union speech - at the risk of boring the audience, he laid out to TV viewers a complete presidential program, delving into each area of substance and articulating his plans in detail and with specificity.

The media highlighted his prolonged kiss with Tipper on the stage as the reason for his bounce, but it was really a speech bursting with specifics that gave him his edge.

Voters have been very impressed by Obama's opening act. His charisma, intellect and message have thrilled tens of millions, especially among the young. But, so far, he's had no second act - he's been unable to follow up the generalities with specifics or to put flesh on the skeletal message of change.

Now, in his acceptance speech, the nominee needs to go where he hasn't been before and answer the implicit question voters always ask of candidates who run on promises of change: Where's the beef?

Obama has chosen a hard venue for such a serious message. Performing in a stadium crammed with 75,000 adoring fans is a task more suitable to a quarterback than a candidate for president. Continued...