Obama's speech today.

[tzikeh]

There's the man I voted for (video of today's speech to the Democratic Representatives--complete 30 minutes).

This is how you garner party loyalty, Dems--not with threats, or force, but with inspiration, humanity, and honest, open connection. Today, I am as proud to have voted for Mister Obama as I was the night he became the President-Elect. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Candidate Obama still lives in President Obama. Sometimes his choices disappoint me; a few times they've greatly disappointed me. I wish he'd let go of his seemingly unshakable desire for a truly bipartisan Congress (hint: no, nuh-uh, forget it, never, ever, ever). But this man has united the Democratic House of Representatives behind one of the most contentious bills put before them in years, with many of them knowing that voting Yes may cost them their seat.

He spoke for thirty minutes, with no notes, and no TelePrompTer. Ezra Klein asked a staffer to get him a copy of the speech, and was informed that President Obama went to the Hill with no speech. No speechwriters had been involved in what you see in that video. There is no copy, because there is nothing to have a copy of. This is President Obama--the President Obama I believed we would have: with both gravitas and humor presenting successes and failures, his hopes and his disappointments, for everyone to see.

This health-care bill is far from what I wanted. I am angry that the single-payer option was taken off the bargaining table before the bargaining even began. I had selfishly hoped for more on the prescription front. Still, I never expected any kind of change in the American health care system to take place--certainly not in my lifetime. But it will pass tomorrow, and then we will have something. From something, we can create more, and from more, we can build and build and build.

That we have this smart, thoughtful, deliberate, courageous President, and that I had the privilege to vote for him, is one of the very few great global joys that I have experienced in my forty years.