Thank YOU, Barbara. In some ways, my favorite analysis about the speech and its impact came from my father, who next month will attend his 50th medical school reunion.

Dad and I spoke shortly after the speech ended and he had the following to say:

"Good speech. We'll see what happens."

I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Jeff

i have enjoyed reading Dr. Gawande's work for years, and his piece this morning is no exception.

I would add a couple other pieces that I found helpful:

This Economist piece summarized the substance of President Obama's speech, covered some of the Republican behavior during it and speculated about the proposed reform's prospects for passage:http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14...

My friend and former colleague Fernando Diaz got the Joe Wilson conversation going almost immediately after the speech ended, but did so in a thoughtful way that asked where this type of behavior is leading:

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/news-opinion/2009/09/obama-heckled-durin...

Finally, I would mention Bill Bishop's book The Big Sort. While not about Obama's speech per se, he and his co-author write persuasively about how increased geographic mobility has led to Americans' living in increasingly homogeneous communities-a phenomenon that Cass Sunstein says has only been accentuated with the growth of cyberspace.

I wrote about Bishop's book on my blog earlier this year. He made the point in a subsequent dialogue we had that, despite Obama's campaign rhetoric and early efforts at bipartisanship, America is more partisan than ever.

This might to some degree explain the stone faces of the Republicans to which the Economist article refers.

http://kellylowenstein.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/pushing-through-the-blue...