Michael Long over at Ragan.com has a nice piece on the technical aspects of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. He hits the nail on the head when he says:

the language and content overall were remarkably unsophisticated for such an auspicious evening. This was of a piece with a serious language problem.

And he had an example that I’m sad to say I missed in my Report Card on the speech:

For instance, the misuse of the word “more,” appearing for the first time during a long list of incomplete comparisons, including “more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less.” More than what? More than when? This is a kind of base-stealing in political speeches, and assumes the audience shares the speaker’s viewpoint (safe among fellow Democrats at Invesco Field, but not for the millions watching on TV).

And I think Long was also right to praise Obama’s ability to deliver a message:

Obama is a passionate, confident speaker. He has a resonant voice, free of any distracting accent. He dwells on key words and pauses to underline important points. He avoids extemporizing—a wise move on his part, since he is significantly smoother reading than off-the-cuff.

Did you see Obama on Anderson Cooper explaining why he didn’t go to New Orleans during the height of Gustav? It was a simple message, but he had a great deal of trouble being “off the cuff”.