I was watching President Obama's health care speech last night with a friend of mine who's a former Republican. He had voted for Bush in the last two elections, but was disheartened with the direction in which his party was headed and came to support then-Senator Obama in the primary and general elections. Last night I looked over to him towards the end of Obama's 45 minute address to ask him what he thought. He smiled and said "This is why we elected him. Because when all the Democrats want to run for cover, he actually stands up and says it like it is. He flat out tells you when the Republicans are lying."

My friend then went on to say that he thought last night was the first time he had seen "President Obama, Commander in Chief" as opposed to some shade of "candidate Obama." And that is a sentiment that I could not agree with more. Sure, he called out the Republican misinformation campaign, gave a thinly veiled jab to Sarah Palin, and said he would "call out" politicians who lie about this reform in the future, but for me it was much more than just that.

Last night President Obama stood up and said "we're going to pass health care reform, and the way we're going to do it is by incorporating everyone's good ideas. Not just my own. And not just the Democrats." We often pay lip service to moments like this, to the idea of letting everyone come to the table, but President Obama is actually doing it.

The health care reform he endorsed last night includes provisions and ideas from Secretary of State Clinton, Senator McCain (R-AZ), Senator Snowe (R-ME), a "health care trigger," and Republican-backed medical malpractice reform. Are there still a myriad of provisions in this bill for Republicans to be opposed to? Of course. But that fact that President Obama is a strong enough leader to bring ideas from across the board into this reform to give the American people a better bill because of it, says a lot about the character of his conviction. It says a lot about the Commander in Chief he has become.

We believe that last night's speech should be a wake up call for every member of Congress. Now is the time to reform health care. Now is the time to be proud of the work you do as public servants. As the President said last night "We did not come here to fear history, we came here to make it."

--Newell for Congress Campaign