Here is the Barack Obama address to Congress before a joint session of the U.S. House and Senate. See the live feed video stream, read the text of his speech, and tell us what you think of the president’s prime time address on September 9th, 2009. The time of the speech is 9pm ET/ 6pm PT, and it will be shown on most of the network news channels. But you can see it right here!

obama speech health care





Obama Congressional Address on Health-Care Reform


Our sense of the historic moment is this is probably too little too late to save Obama’s first year in the presidency. So much has changed since that glorious moment when our nation’s first black president was anointed commander in chief just eight short months ago. Yet it seems an eternity to the American people who were looking for something new. Already gone is the luster of hope and the vaporous allure of change for (apparently) just the sake of it.

The broad platitudes and resounding themes of a breathless American political campaign needed to transform overnight into managing real world problems with responsible management of a great nation. Sadly in so many ways Obama has failed the people as a leader. We are beginning to believe that his lifelong dream was to become president rather than to be president. It is a sad testament that the hopes of a nation became the vacuum of leadership. That is the change that a hopeful American electoriate was not looking for this year.

But we are stuck with the oddity for three more years so we will listen to what President Barack Obama has to say about health-care reform before a joint session of the United States Congress. We expect to see a pragmatic Obama, no longer touting an in-your-face approach as he realizes most of his social agenda is already unreachable.

In the speech, Obama will attempt to salvage a face-saving win in the health-care debate. He will ask for a public option to pacify his far-left liberal base, but he knows already that goal is unreachable so he will signal a grand compromise. Expect Obama to sound magnanimous, reaching across the aisle while he challenges Congress to come together. We expect the Obama speech to sound as inspiring as he did in 2008 when speeches meant more than results.

The problem is Americans do not need speeches. Public opinion polls tell us that we do not need or want health care reform, so in many ways our president is selling bridges in Arizona. It is the lowest of the lowest priorities for average Americans. We are concerned about jobs, and yet when has anyone heard the president discussing the recession lately? It is a very curious and out of touch state of affairs that causes pundits to scratch their heads in bewilderment.

The Cato Institute is live-blogging the Obama speech, something you can participate in here. You can participate in live chat right here.

The live feed video will be below when it is available, as will the full text of Obama’s speech on health-care reform before Congress. Meanwhile tell us what you think as you join what should be a vigorous discussion in the comments.

Obama Health-Care Speech: Live Feed Video Stream

You will be able to watch Obama’s speech on health-care live before Congress right here by clicking the arrow to play the video stream The full text of the speech is in straight from the horse’s mouth at Whitehouse.gov.