With John McCain's vice-presidential announcement following hot on the heels of Obama's speech and the Republican convention coming to order just 72 hours later, Obama's bounce from an "empty" speech won't last; he'll be lucky to end up in a tie coming out of the conventions.
But a substantive speech setting out a program will strike just the right chord with voters and will give him the same kind of bounce that sustained Gore in 2000 (and kept Bill Clinton's ratings aloft for eight years).
Obama hasn't had a bad convention so far - because he hasn't had any convention. It's as if the gathering in the Pepsi Center belongs to the Clintons - and he has to leave for the expanses of Invesco Field to have his convention.
In fact, the Democratic nominee not only has realized no bounce from the proceedings so far, he may actually be the first candidate to lose ground during his own convention.
He needs a home run tonight, not just a blast from the revivalist past. That means he needs to give us an Act Two of substance.
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Dick Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of
2010: Take Back America. To get all of Dick Morris’s and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by email, go to
www.dickmorris.com