**The Speech
*Biden appeared on all of the morning shows to follow up on the president's speech. AP has a roundup, noting he claimed that a health care bill will be done by Thanksgiving "because President Barack Obama has 're-centered debate' and there's bipartisan consensus for change despite the fight over a government-run option." Biden: "I think the most important thing he did, he also debunked a lot of the myths out there, the idea of death panels, that we were going to insure undocumented aliens."

*"The speech was about more than health care," Adam Nagourney writes. "It was an attempt by this still new president to display his authority to a Congress that had begun to question his fortitude, to show that he was as strong a political leader as he was a political candidate and to show that he was not -- to use the shorthand of the day -- another Jimmy Carter."

*Dan Balz notes a "sense of urgency" in Obama's voice. "It is rare for a presidency so young to have so much on the line. No single speech can create consensus on health-care legislation, and in that sense this was not the make-or-break moment described by some commentators. But Obama has staked his presidency on this issue, and his advisers knew it was long past time for him to assert himself in a more demonstrable way or risk seeing the entire enterprise slip away.

*AP's analysis of the speech calls the public option discussion "vintage Obama, the political realist who knows it's not worth going to the mat for something when the votes aren't going to be there. It was Obama the conciliator, using soaring rhetoric to try to get warring sides to come together around common sense. And it was Obama the ever-willing negotiator, unfazed by abandoning many specifics on the road to a larger goal."

*A fact check questions Obama's assertion that his plan is deficit neutral.

*"Two out of three Americans who watched President Obama's health care reform speech Wednesday night favor his health care plans, a 14-point gain among speech-watchers, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. national poll."

*The Globe has more details on the Kennedy letter. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said that Victoria Reggie Kennedy called to say the senator had written the letter in May and wanted it delivered to Obama after his death. "The president read it, and it became the basis of the closing" section of the speech that Obama wrote himself in longhand, Axelrod said in a brief interview. "It was something that moved him a lot."

**How Will Congress React
*Politics Daily: "There was a sense that many moderate Democrats are keeping the door open a little wider than they did in the past. Obama's speech seemed to at least buy more time and earn a little more attention for the president's proposal before people decide. Politics Daily has learned that moderate Democrats, including Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Lousianna, are meeting Thursday with Obama at the White House. About 15 of them met Wednesday with Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff."

*"Pelosi and Hoyer, longtime rivals and often effective allies, have chafed against each other during the tense, tiring negotiations over health care reform, with Pelosi voicing the concerns of progressives and Hoyer publicly adopting a more conciliatory tone in his role as ambassador to the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs," Politico reports. "So far, the tension between the two has actually worked to the leaders' advantage ... But the relationship is coming under strain as the brutal realities of legislative deal cutting emerge."

*Even before the speech Blue Dogs were seeking a truce with liberal Democrats, some of whom had openly criticized the fiscally conservative Dems as questioned their motives, The Hill reports. "In a closed-door caucus meeting Wednesday morning, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) called for unity and asked for the public criticism to stop."

The Hill also got Rep. Raul Grijalva's (D-Ariz.) reaction to the public option language: "President Obama was elected to bring change and progress," Grijalva said. "I fear that if my party and the president do not appreciate the mandate the American people have given us, the people will lose confidence in the idea that they can vote for change and get what they voted for."

**Wilson's Shout
*The State: "Rep. Joe Wilson, a little-known Republican from South Carolina, stole the spotlight Wednesday evening by yelling out "You lie!" during President Barack Obama's address to Congress."

*Biden said Wilson's outburst "demeaned the institution," and made him "embarrassed for the chamber and Congress I love."

*"Wilson's boorishness -- for which he quickly apologized -- enraged audience members on both sides of the aisle. It also overshadowed a speech that included some of Obama's harshest attacks on his GOP critics to date, including a denunciation of 'death panel' alarmists as liars -- a veiled swipe at Sarah Palin -- and a warning to Republicans who want to 'kill' reform," Politico reports.

*"It was a rare breach of the protocol that governs ritualistic events in the Capitol," reports the NY Times. "Democrats said it showed lack of respect for the office of the presidency and was reminiscent of Republican disruptions at recent public forums on health care."

*WaPo's Dana Milbank writes that "the nation's rapidly deteriorating discourse hit yet another low" with Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) "You lie!" outburst.

*Time's Scherer: "At the moment Wilson exploded, the outburst seemed like an assault on the President. Soon afterwards, it was clear that it had been a gift. Wilson had, in an emotional expression, proven Obama's point: the summer of town halls had been less a discussion than a circus, a forum where misinformation was vindicated by passion, where disrespect was elevated as a virtue. Now the circus had come inside Congress."

*An interesting contrast to Wilson: The Hill spotted GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine), Robert Bennett (Utah) and Judd Gregg (N.H.) standing and clapping when Obama dismissed the suggestion that Democratic healthcare reform would lead to "panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens."

**Stressing Service: The president and first lady sat down with Time magazine to talk about service.

**Campaign Stuff
*South Carolina Republican Party Chairwoman Karen Floyd is expected to seek a party resolution calling for Mark Sanford's resignation, a source familiar with plans for the call told CNN.

*John Kerry testified in favor of an interim Senate appointment, joining "dozens of residents, public officials, and labor representatives" who did so at a hearing. "This is no time for the people of Massachusetts to not be represented fully in Washington," Kerry said.

*We noted last night that Andy Card expressed a real interest in the race, but said family considerations are keeping him from an announcement right now. Meanwhile, Christy Mihos is now saying he'll stick with the gubernatorial race.

*NJ Gov: "Seeking to return the focus of the gubernatorial race to incumbent Gov. Jon S. Corzine in general and the economy in particular, Republican Chris Christie laid out the broad-strokes rationale Wednesday for why he should be elected," the Asbury Park Press reports. "Christie made no new proposals in the speech but reiterated the philosophy he's touted on the campaign trail since January -- support for cutting spending and taxes, restoring funding for property tax rebates, more charter schools and an increased focus on reviving the state's cities. And he repeatedly called Corzine out of touch."

*DE Sen: "A return to civilian life is three weeks away for some soldiers in the Delaware Army National Guard after almost a year in Iraq. In the case of JAG Capt. Beau Biden, the homecoming also will catapult him back into an intensifying political life," WBOC-TV reports.

*NV Sen: State Sen. Mark Amodei (R) "joined the growing field of Republicans hoping for a chance to unseat" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Reno Gazette Journal reports. Amodei said he has the right "toolbox" to win.

--Mike Memoli and Kyle Trygstad