Obama: Hype vs. Substance? Can he have both?

There's a growing backlash against Obama as an over-hyped candidate (this post was in fact inspired by an e-mail to join a facebook group that's against Obama as all-hype). His reputation for that comes from a couple places:

• He has focused on process over issues (the ways of Washington do not work, etc)
• He is a good speaker and inspirational to many and so the policy arguments get lost
• He is a "cool" candidate right now and is helped by YouTube videos made my celebrities but also hurt by them at the same time.

This criticism is becoming more common. Erica C Barnett at the Stranger's Slog (a Clinton supporter) disparages Obama because of his glazed-eyes supporters. Matt Bai at the NYT Caucus Blog talks about a friend who was dissuaded from voting for Obama because of the hyped will.i.am video. Etc, etc.

I tend to thing the criticism is baseless (but, then, I would). As Bai points out Obama is working hard right now to be more policy focused in his recent speeches. Here's Matthew Yglesias on Obama's policy-driven speech on the economy in Wisconsin. I'd also like to add that a quick gander at Obama's issues pages on the website should hopefully do away with the myth that he's got no ideas or proposals. Disagree with the proposals or not, they're there, and they're pretty wonkish. Here's his energy plan, for example, which gets pretty danged specific.

I think what's important going into Texas and Ohio is to emphasize that not only can Obama but be an inspirational speaker, but he's got the substance behind it.

UPDATE: Here's Andrew Sullivan on this same issue today.

Obama has a host of policy positions, on taxes, healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan, immigration, climate change, and this blog has mentioned or debated many of them. There seems to be a meme that because someone is inspiring, there has to be no substance. But they are not mutually exclusive categories. In the Democratic race, the only real substantive difference is healthcare mandates, which I've aired a great deal. And compared with McCain, Obama is a wonk.

Ouch.