Obama's speech is seen as unifying Democrats

President Obama's speech on healthcare failed to bridge the gulf with Republicans, but Democrats said that the president had largely succeeded in unifying his own party by making a persuasive pitch to the American public and by casting his plan to overhaul the healthcare system as a political and moral imperative. The day after the nationally televised address in which Obama signaled that he could accept an alternative to a government-run insurance plan, influential Democrats who previously seemed wedded to the public insurance option hinted that they, too, might be flexible, according to the New York Times.