The Tulane-Loyola game never gets even close to this loud.

Two days after Fat Tuesday, a few thousand locals packed Fogelman Arena at Tulane to hear Barack Obama’s poetry and promises about New Orleans.

His poetry to the violence in the shadows of the joyful noise of Endymion made the crowd – myself included – go wild. It felt great to have such an articulate leader eloquently sum up the situation of the city in such an inspirational way.

But what about his promises? Some proposals, including the ones on local education and health care, will help the city in a big way. But I’d like to focus on two of the issues on which he remained uncomfortably vague while garnering cheers: flood protection and the right to return.

Obama’s promises about protecting hurricane protection got screaming ovations, but they fall short. The senator pledged to finish building 100-year protection by 2011, which represents the exact goal the federal government has already set out for itself. Then, Obama said that he had the “goal of expanding that protection to defend against a Category 5 storm.” Troublingly, he just lists it as a goal.

But his statement reflects a lack of understanding of the flood protection system’s fundamental problems. The Army Corps of Engineers has itself said that the system was a system “in name alone.” How will Obama make flood protection into an integrated and resilient system?

His mention of wetlands in the next sentence is a start, but he indicated a lack of detailed knowledge about the systematic problems. The imprecision is disconcerting, considering the existence of the region depends on the details.

The candidate’s comments about displaced residents returning to New Orleans were similarly vague. Obama said, “We will ensure that every displaced resident can return to a home.” Displaced residents – excluding, unfortunately, public-housing residents – already have the legal right to return to their homes. How will Obama go further than the expensive, complex Road Home program in helping residents return? He offered no actual solutions to the problem of residents struggling to return to New Orleans.

Certainly, Obama’s pledge at the end of his speech to spend every day working on this “priority of my presidency” may be substantial. But, as he noted himself, New Orleans has been abandoned by empty presidential promises before. Locals ought to press all of the candidates to be more specific in their policy recommendations.

We don’t want the promises made in Fogelman Arena to go the way of the ones made in Jackson Square more than two years ago.