Was Obama's speech enough?

How the president's much-anticipated address affected his chances of passing health-care reform

For Barack Obama, the days of taking Republican attacks without firing back are over, said E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Washington Post. The president used his much-anticipated speech before Congress on Wednesday to sweep aside a summer full of misconceptions, "distortions, and outright lies" about his health plan. "For the cause of health-care reform, it was about time." (watch Obama's health speech, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

The big speech was the easy part, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. Obama spelled out the need for new regulations on insurers and the rationale for helping the uninsured obtain coverage. "The hard part, in terms of both policy and politics, is finding a way to pay for the expansion in coverage."

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