Walter Shapiro halfway agrees with Ron Fournier, you Democrats

For the Josh Marshalls and Steve Benens of the world, along with the many other Democratic (and not necessarily liberal) bloggers who think Associated Press Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier is secretly on McCain’s payroll or something, think again.

They should read Salon Washington bureau chief Walter Shapiro. He makes some of the same observations:

Along with middle-class tax cuts (that siren song of Bill Clinton's presidency), Obama did unequivocally set a 10-year goal to “finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.” But compared to Al Gore’s chilling warning about global warming in his Thursday night speech before network coverage began, Obama's proposals seem pallid in comparison. Even healthcare reform — the signature domestic issue of the Democratic primaries — merited just 100 words. The holy Democratic grail of universal coverage was boiled down to: “If you have healthcare, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.”

The Supreme Court was never mentioned by Obama, a former professor of constitutional law. Nor was Guantánamo, torture or civil liberties. These issues clearly do not poll well among swing voters in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, industrial states that Obama highlighted with anecdotes in his speech. What all this suggests is not some ideological mushiness or inherent character flaw in Obama, but rather the reality that he finds himself in a tight campaign in which he must constantly acknowledge the conservative impulses of persuadable voters. It was no surprise that Obama, sounding a bit like Bill Clinton in 1996 praising school uniforms, said “fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance for their children.”

That said, Obama’s 10-year goal oil goal isn’t likely unless a major increase in the gas tax is part of the plan.

Greenwald generally agrees with the Shapiro assessment, beyond just Obama:

(T)he Democrats, as a result of omissions, are largely guilty of doing what they typically do: appearing listless and amorphous by standing for nothing other than safe and uncontroversial platitudes.

Shorter Glenn: Obama’s drive for post-partisan politics includes ignoring why the Iraq War was a clusterfuck and how Bush became stubborn about it, and how it mutilated our civil liberties (Kerry’s one comment aside, Dems ignored Gitmo). But, Glenn says Obama’s speech, even more than Biden’s, was the best attack speech of the convention.

Now, I’ve had a few criticisms of Fournier myself on these pages. But, I don’t believe he’s a McCain suckup.

Anyway, Marshall, Benen, et al aren’t even comparing apples and oranges. Until McCain speaks a week from now, and we see what the AP writes, they’re comparing apples to the vacuum of outer space.

Let’s look at this next Friday, in proper perspective.