So what did everybody think about Obama's energy speech today?  I thought it was pretty good for the most part and he got some pretty good and clean shots on McCain.  However, here are two critiques.

1) I'm not sure if Obama is going to like the headlines for the speech.  MSNBC and Halperin seem to be focusing on the fact that he "shifted" on the issue of tapping the nation's oil reserves.  It's probably not good anytime the word "shift" is in a headline.  It's probably good that his camp acknowledges that this position is a flip-flop and that the flip-flop stems from the fact that people are hurting.  Mitigating some of the potential damage on the flip-flop charge on the energy issue is that the other guy flip-flopped too.

2) I didn't feel Obama focused enough on his $1,000 energy rebate plan to be funded from the windfall profits tax on oil companies.  While I understand that his speech was focused primarily on how his potential presidency would achieve energy independence in the future, I think most Americans are less worried about the future than the immediate.  Obama only spent a couple of lines talking about this rebate plan, which according to Rasmussen is receiving overwhelming support (though the windfall profits tax idea is surprisingly not as popular).

I love the rebate plan; it's straight from the HRC playbook and presents us with an opportunity to use a wedge issue against McCain and the pubs.  McCain's spokeswoman indicated that he was against the rebate, so Obama has a real opportunity to drive home the narrative that McCain would rather protect oil companies from taxes than provide relief to struggling families.  Obama has to stick with this narrative and make his windfall profits rebate plan the primary focus of this week.

Any other thoughts?