We've already posted some of our initial reactions to the President's speech last night. You can read the full text here of the president's remarks here, as well as the letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Here are some more highlights and reactions from around the web:

• CNN snap-poll of people who tuned in for the address found that: "Two out of three Americans who watched President Barack Obama's health care reform speech Wednesday night favor his health care plans -- a 14-point gain among speech-watchers."
• Kaiser Health News interviews eight Americans who watched the speech: "Was it persuasive? How would the proposals he outlined affect you and your family?" Jeff Goodman, 52, an uninsured owner of a small business in Los Angeles said:

[My recent heart attack] was just another secret shopping mission God sent me to evaluate the health system. It's very challenging. I am more optimistic than I was an hour ago that the bill he finally signs will actually be genuine reform, that this won't be watered down. ...

If everything he said tonight comes true, my situation will be really improved. The group plan I could pay into would become much more affordable. Or I could join a co-op. And I really want to be able to offer coverage to my employees. I'm really optimistic both as a small business man, and an individual.

• The New York Time's Editorial Board thinks "the president finally found his voice." which was: "was rhetorically powerful in its insistence that reform must finally happen - for the sake of Americans' health and the economic health of the country." The Times' Adam Nagourney concurs: "He managed to invest his case with both economic and emotional urgency - particularly when he invoked the memory of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose widow, Victoria, was in the audience -- without getting bogged down in too many details."
• At The New Yorker, Atul Gawande, who knows a thing or two about checklists, says Obama "checked all the boxes on my list" of things the speech had to accomplish but notes that reform "is going to be a process, not a one-time event."
• The Washington Post's Tom Shales thinks Obama came across like Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington": a bright-eyed young idealist up against entrenched power, old ideas and obstructionism.
• The www.Fivethirtyeight.com blog said, "Obama's great strength, as any good politician's, is putting complex and difficult policies and choices into very simple, and traditionally American terms. He did a splendid job of contextualizing this debate in terms of the past and the future, in terms of the size and role of government and when government acts well and acts boldly."
  
• Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown parses the president's words while Glenn Thrush wonders with Obama's speech, and Joe Wilson's outburst, will galvanize Democrats in support of reform. It seems to have had an effect at least on Sen. Ben Nelson who tells the paper: ""I think it was a bit of a game-changer," Roger Simon thinks Obama's speech was "both an elegant celebration of the American character and a strong denunciation of our current inability in this country to ‘engage in a civil conversation.'" but wonders if its enough to unite the Democratic party behind reform.
• Meanwhile, The Hill reports that fiscally conservative Blue Dogs are looking to patch things up with some of the more progressive members of their party.
• The Economist praises Obama for "cleverly borrowing good ideas from both sides of the party" citing his openness to medical malpractice reform and taxing "Cadillac" health plans. The newspaper's one concern? The public health insurance option. The Wall Street Journal's Capital Journal describes the difficult tightrope Obama has had to walk on these issues and on the public option. The Hill's Sam Youngman writes: "In addressing the public option, one of the more controversial aspects of his proposal, Obama sought to assuage both his allies, who have accused him of going soft, and his opponents, saying the idea is 'only one part of my plan, and should not be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles' KHN describes how Obama left the door open for using a fallback trigger approach to the public health insurance option - an idea floated by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.
• KHN also provides analysis from a group of outside the Beltway experts. Praising the speech, David Nash, founding dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health wrote that Obama, "explicitly linked our need to reduce waste, improve quality, reduce hospital acquired infections and practice better team-based care to the set of tools needed as part of the solution."
• And all of our mothers' thought Joe Wilson has terrible manners.

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