Nice speech, although it should have been given months ago, but let's see how he follows up. I liked his tone of determination, let's see if he actually gets it done. It's clear he gets it, but he's said the right things before and backed away from them. He has developed a credibility problem for himself that I hope he'll now prove, at least on this issue, that he doesn't deserve.

But while the speech might have reassured the general public, do we think it changed any minds in the Senate?  If this issue was up to the House and the general public, there would be nothing to worry about. There are a handful of senators that hold the future of healthcare in their hands, and pressuring them to do what the American people rather than the health insurance industry wants is all that matters. Will Obama and his hitman Emmanuel get down and dirty and twist the arms to which those hands are attached? Does he want to?

A couple of other points:

Obama's appeal to the American character–Isn't that precisely what the culture war is about, and therefore about which there is no real consensus? On the cultural right, Obama is perceived as having little or no participation in the American character–he's really a Kenyan/Indonesian Muslim, after all. Is the American character tolerant, compassionate, fair-minded, and neighborly?  Or does it collectively compose a nasty culture of Joe Wilsons, rugged individuals for who live in an "it's us against them" mentality, when "them" is everybody who who does not conform to their idea of normal?  "We normal Americans aren't going to pay the health care costs of those Others." Isn't that really Joe Wison's point. Do you think he really cares about whether Hisapanics who might be helped are legal or not? 

Lincoln gave a famous speech similarly appealing to the better angels of our nature, and then we Americans went out and slaughtered one another for the next four years.

Individual mandates–I understand the logic of requiring them, but the question is how it will work out in practice.  Will poorer people be forced to buy low-quality insurance with super high deductibles and huge copays which might help with a catastrophic illness or injury, but not help with the more routine bone breaks, checkups, childbirths? It's interesting that the individual-mandates issue was a bone of contention in the primaries because Obama didn't insist on them while Clinton did, and people criticized Obama for not really being behind "universal" care. People should not be forced to buy an insurance policy that won't significantly help them pay their routine healthcare costs.

The public option–He says he's for it, but will he fight for it? I hope he will, but I'm skeptical. I'm open to the idea that there are other ways to achieve the desperately needed cost
savings and controls beside providing a public option, but until
something that is proposed that is simpler and cleaner, the public
option should be fought for. 

Private/Public is not the real issue; it's profit/non-profit. My fundamental beef is with the idea that the bulk of health care should be delivered and paid for in the for-profit sector. That bulk should instead be provided by non-profits, whether they are situated in the public or private sectors. Their main concern should be with serving people's health needs, not in delivering profits to investors. Only about 18% of hospitals in the U.S. are set up as private for-profit corporations; the rest are community non-profits or public hospitals. Why should healthcare financing be any different?

Obama's drawing the analogy of health care delivery to the public/private delivery of education is apt. I'm ok with people buying insurance from for-profit companies if they can give them what the non-profits don't, but it shouldn't be more than a fifth of the total market. The bulk of good quality, affordable healthcare should be delivered in the same way that the bulk of good-quality, affordable education is. How many private schools and universities are set up as for-profit corporations?  Private/Public doesn't matter to me; it's profit/non-profit that's the real heart of the issue.