Obama's Health Care Speech

President Obama delivered his health care speech to a joint session of congress just a few hours ago. Obama was clear about the objectives he wanted to achieve through health care reform (more stability for those who have health care, an insurance option for people who don't, and a mandate to require individuals to carry health insurance), he took time to dispell myths about health care reform (death panels, health coverage for illegal aliens, and ending Medicare), and to discuss how the plan would be paid for. He even threw a bone to republicans by saying he supports tort reform, shortly before delivering a stern warning that anyone pushing the idea that health care reform would be called out publicly by the White House.

At the end, Obama got all Obama with his speech and went for rhetorical flourish by going into Ted Kennedy's last days and calling on Americans to come together and solve big challenges today as they have in past. And in what might be one of his best sound bites ever, Obama reminded those in Congress that "we did not come here to fear the future, we came here to shape it."

We'll see whether the speech creates any kind of change in the tone of the health care debate, personally I thought Obama brought the goods tonight.