more comments on the speech last night

Once he got through the opening reference to the economy, he turned to health care "reform":

But we did not come here just to clean up crises. We came here to build a future....

Nice line!

I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.

On the surface, another nice line. Just below the surface, this reflects tremendous hubris-- as if he can fix the problems of health care. Amazing.

He praises the Congressional efforts on the one hand, but is critical as well-- of the GOP (partisanship)-- even though he doesn't need a single Republican vote to make this happen.

...what we've also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have towards their own government. Instead of honest debate, we've seen scare tactics. Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge....

Interestingly, he invokes Ted Kennedy at the end of the speech, trying to score short-term political points.