Speech Aftermath

So the speech last night... What did you think? I liked it. I thought it was strong. He sounded in control, and left me wondering, 'Hey, there's the Obama I like.' His concessions are interesting, and I think they are in the right direction. I also think that Joe Wilson should be fighting for his political life after that ridiculous outburst after Obama stated that illegal immigrants won't be covered. What was that about? Agreeing to fix malpractice lawsuits is an easy concession because it just makes sense. I agree that it's not a silver bullet, but it should help. Some on the left are incensed that Obama is now pushing a mandate that everyone must care insurance. This is a flip from his campaign, but one that I'm not upset about. I liked how he said that we are already paying for people who don't have insurance through emergency room costs. That was good. I like how some people cheered when he talked about single-payer, but of course he wasn't endorsing single-payer, which is disappointing. To say that we can't do single-payer because it's a radical shift is stupid, because our current system is broken and we need a radical shift if we are truly going to fix it. That's not possible politically (although if the Republicans were in charge and wanted it, I think it would get done, as the Democrats lack the Republican discipline for good or for ill). It was tempting to think that he would finger out Palin and Grassley directly about their lunatic death panel claims.

In an aside, it's hard to watch the speech with Pelosi in the background. I do not like her, and she is not a good leader for the house Democrats. Both her and Reid have been terrible for the Democrats and we need better leadership from the Democratic congress.

Who cares? Let's go to the Pundits!!
John Dickerson looks at Obamacare 2.0
The Huffington Posts bloggers give their soundbites.
THe New York Times has it's say.

And here is a nice graph that shows just what health care reform means right now.