Barack Obama is being too vague on numbers

chicagotribune.com — President-elect Barack Obama delivered a major address Thursday on the collapsing economy that sounded more like a campaign speech than what the nation really needs: a specific, detailed plan for getting out of this mess.

Obama used only three hard numbers in his speech at George Mason University. And the only one related to policy—the promise of a $1,000 tax cut for 95 percent of working families—did not exactly have the sound of a big-picture plan to save the struggling economy.

Some details of Obama's plan have leaked out in recent days. The price tag could come to $775 billion, or could reach $1.2 trillion, depending on whose numbers and what programs one believes.