Much like John Kerry at the Democratic convention in July, President Bush gave an acceptance speech Thursday that was long on warmth, humanity and high-sounding ideas, but a mite short on specifics. As we said after Kerry's speech, both candidates should concentrate during the next two months on the substantive issues that are truly important to the American people.

This week's GOP convention in New York's Madison Square Garden proved an effective tool for advancing the party's agenda. It served to rally the faithful with some stinging attacks on Kerry, yet managed to show the general public a diversity of views within the GOP that it hopes will appeal to the sliver of undecided voters this fall.

After citing what he called his successes - such as Medicare reforms, No Child Left Behind education reforms, and tax cuts - Bush outlined an ambitious domestic agenda for a second term. He called for beefed-up job training, tax code reform, health savings accounts, small business initiatives, personal retirement accounts, further educational reforms, more affordable housing and health centers for the poor. Lacking was talk of how these ideas could be funded, especially given current budget deficits. But Kerry didn't outline how he'd pay for his agenda, either.

Bush pointed to progress in the war on terror, unapologetic over his decisions to attack abroad to defend Americans at home. He argued pointedly that advancing liberty in the Middle East serves our interests here. But he bypassed thorny issues such as continuing violence in Iraq, the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and the missing weapons of mass destruction.

Bush's performance may have scored some points with swing voters, but the real campaign is just heating up. We hope both sides will stop fixating on the candidates' military records and other peripheral issues. We want details from both candidates on how they'd address key issues of security, job creation, health care, energy, the environment, the economy and huge deficits.

"Help is on the way," Kerry declared while accepting his nomination. "Nothing will hold us back," Bush vowed Thursday night. Sounds good, but both need to give voters the specifics behind those slogans.