Olbermann. Find. Old. Work.

While watching Democrat nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) deliver his speech last week, I was prepared to be highly entertained. It is possible to enjoy the rhetoric and flair of a public figure while disagreeing with his public policy solutions. Former Gov. Mario Cuomo (D–N.Y.) was such a figure for me, as is political activist Jesse Jackson. Former New Jersey Gov. Tom Keane’s “Pastel Patriotism” speech comes to mind as well.

While a little unmoved by the beginning of Obama’s acceptance speech, I perked up when he promised to “spell out exactly” what he would do as president. It was clear in my mind this is where the Democrats could really shore up their weak spots.

About 10 minutes after hearing him utter that phrase, I had little to hang my hat on and was sure I’d dozed off and missed what “exactly” he’d “spelled out.” I hit rewind on the TiVo and watched that part again. But to no avail.

I went online and pulled some of the specifics Obama promised in his speech and now ask a simple question: Is there any politician who couldn’t put these exact words in his or her speech?

* a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it

* find ways to safely harness nuclear power

* protect Social Security for future generations

* in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East

* I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.

However, the next day’s news didn’t exactly reflect what I had watched. It was fine coverage. Obama deserves his day. It was just that no one seemed to have hit on this omission. That is, until I saw the Associated Press analysis. There, reporter Chuck Babington had a decent news analysis where he matter-of-factly pointed out a rather obvious point.

“But instead of dwelling on specifics, he [Obama] laced the crowning speech of his long campaign with the type of rhetorical flourishes that Republicans mock and the attacks on John McCain that Democrats cheer,” Babington’s analysis said. Obama “touched on major issues quickly and lightly.” He went on to point out some of the deficiencies in the speech specifics while noting that no one could outline all the details in a convention speech.

Babington was then met by a wall of condescending fire from the left. (I know Chuck fairly well, having gone toe to toe with him when he covered Capitol Hill and I worked in Republican leadership. He is no conservative soul mate, but is a scrupulous reporter.)

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who has gone over to the loopy left, venomously fired at Babington with hostility dripping from his every word. After all, Babington had the audacity to question authority — including his. Olbermann then unloaded with: “Charles Babington. Find. New. Work.” Unfortunately, Olbermann was then upheld as the paragon of virtue by others in the lefty blogosphere.

It turns out that Babington wasn’t alone in questioning Obama’s “empty suit” speech. Just the first.

The dean of the Washington press corps, David Broder, wrote a biting piece in The Washington Post concluding that the Obama speech was “standard-issue Democratic fare” — that, contrary to the rhetoric of change, Obama’s speech “subordinated any talk of fundamental systemic change to a checklist of traditional Democratic programs.” So much so that the “recital of a long list of domestic promises could have been delivered by any Democratic nominee from Walter Mondale to John Kerry.” He also called it a “disappointing speech.” Ouch.

Maybe it was Olbermann’s typical hyper-partisan rant cloaked as news coverage that has compelled former NBC anchor and heavyweight Tom Brokaw to say that Olbermann and Chris “Thrill going up my leg” Matthews sometimes have “gone too far.”

Keith Olbermann was a decent sports scores reader for ESPN. As far as his political analysis, he would be best advised to … Find. Old. Work.