You've probably noticed that this country is not France, where the mistress of a married political leader can attend his funeral and barely raise an eyebrow. It is not Denmark, where new mothers get a year of government-paid maternity leave, or Sweden, with universal health care.

It's also not Britain, where members of Parliament routinely heckle and insult each other and the prime minister during public sessions.

So, when Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted "You lie!" at Barack Obama during the president's speech on health-care reform last week, it was a real shocker. He wasn't the only Republican to cat-call during Mr. Obama's address, but he was the only one to call the president a liar to his face before millions of witnesses.

Bad move. It turns out that a presidential address to a joint session of Congress is not the same as a "town hall meeting." Rules of decorum are to be followed, and contemptuous hollering from the audience is frowned upon.

No one present could remember such a thing happening before. Democrats were apoplectic and briefly considered censuring Mr. Wilson. Members of his own party rebuked him in no uncertain terms. His Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, raised more than $400,000 in 24 hours from donors across the country.

The GOP leadership got an earful from Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's chief of staff. They told Mr. Wilson to apologize, which he did. The president accepted, saying everyone makes mistakes. Clearly, he doesn't want to be sidetracked by the same pettiness he decried in his speech.

We can only wonder if Mr. Wilson would have yelled that way at any other president, or if there was something about this one that he thought gave him license.

Maybe he really was spontaneously overtaken, as he claimed. But we know this: He didn't yell out because he had a moment of feeling British. Those people get government-supplied health care, the GOP's worst nightmare.

Give him this much -- at least he was listening. That's more than can be said of Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip, who barely looked up from his Blackberry. This left the folks at home to ponder why he'd bothered to come, and what was so all-fired important that he couldn't spare a minute of eye contact with the president. Maybe he was tweeting to his followers -- "Nya nya, he can't make me look!" Or making a shopping list -- milk, bread, spit balls.

Mr. Obama's speech was clear, forceful and about two months overdue. He knew he'd lost control of the debate and set out to take it back.

He noted that under the current system, insurance companies deny coverage for trumped-up reasons, cancel policies when people get sick, jack up rates at will and cherry-pick subscribers. His plan, he said, will outlaw such practices.

He ticked off other problems -- a lack of affordability, portability and competition -- and said how he plans to address them. He debunked false charges about pulling the plug on Grandma or using tax money to cover people who are in the country illegally. He reiterated that those who like their current health plans won't have to change anything but others will be able to buy into an insurance pool at a reasonable cost. Where no pools exist, there will be a public option. Competition will drive down the cost of coverage, saving money for everyone.

Preventive care such as mammograms and colonoscopies will be covered. Medicare will be protected. He pledged not to finance the plan with deficit spending, as the Bush administration financed the Iraq war. And he quoted from a letter that Ted Kennedy had written to him, to be delivered after the senator's death: "At stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."

Americans are skeptical when politicians talk about new programs and how to pay for them, and rightly so. Still, the president's speech had the effect he was looking for, at least in the short-term. Two polls the next day showed public opinion of health-care reform had shifted in his favor. But congressional Republicans, for the most part, stood as opposed as ever.

No surprise there. Even though Mr. Obama took special pains to note aspects of his program that came from the GOP playbook -- such as pilot programs on tort reform -- and gave props to the lawmakers who proposed them, they're not giving an inch. Nothing with a public option is going to get their support. They've made it clear they don't believe his assurances on, well, anything. And the "Blue Dog" Democrats aren't much better.

Mr. Obama can talk all he wants about an open-door policy and his willingness to listen. But these are some of the same people who filled their constituents' heads with nutball stories about death panels and who thought his speech to school children was a socialist plot. It's in their political interest to delay or derail any kind of reform that would give Democrats a success. Meanwhile, the latest Census figures show that the ranks of the uninsured have swelled to 46.3 million.

The nation got a good look on Wednesday at a president determined to do something about that. It also got a good look at the ill-mannered petulance of his opposition. Voters will decide who has the public interest at heart and make their desires known.

We're not Europe, that's for sure.

We're not stupid, either. At least, I hope not.