A good analysis - fivethirtyeight.com

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/09/state-of-healthcare-speech-final.html

State-of-the-Healthcare Speech: Final Thoughts
by Nate Silver @ 9:44 PM

Reactions from Tom and I:

Nate Silver: As Marc Ambinder outlined this afternoon, this was a difficult speech because it was going for a bit of a two-fer. On the one hand, Obama needed to appeal to liberals -- both the 60 or so members of the House who have threatened to vote against a watered-down bill, and the much broader, activist community who has grown wary of what they perceive as a Clintonian president who is too willing to compromise. On the other hand, he needed to appeal to independent voters and their brethren, among whom Obama's approval ratings and sentiment toward his health care package have fallen significantly. He could afford to skip over the broad mainstream of the Democratic Party, who are going to be happy with more or less anything the that he does on health care, and the quarter or so of country who disapproved of Obama from Day One and won't care for what he has to say no matter what.

_snip_

worth reading it all!