At the Providence Sundries restaurant in south Charlotte, more than two-dozen Obama supporters gathered Wednesday night to watch the president’s speech on health care reform.

With polls showing President Obama’s popularity eroding, I wanted to see what the mood would be.

The viewing area was nearly full when I arrived slightly early.

“You want to sit here?” I heard a voice say as I scanned the room.

I looked to see a middle-age white man with a goatee and glasses sitting in a wooden booth. He introduced himself as Henry Martinat, a property manager. He slid against the wall to make room.

I asked what brought him out.

“I wanted to watch the speech,” he said. “I haven’t poked my head out since the election.”

Like some others in the room, Martinat said he worked hard to get Obama elected -- registered hundreds of voters, made hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls and knocked on hundreds, if not thousands, of doors.

But also like some others in the room, Martinat now gives the president mixed grades.

“I think he has done remarkably well considering what he was given to work with,” he said.

Martinat said that while Obama has done well with the economy, he has “stepped back” on some key environmental issues. He also said the president has not been forceful enough on health care and has allowed his opponents to define the debate.

“Tonight he is finally using the bully pulpit,” he said.

Martinat said he believes America should have a single-payer health system, like the kind residents have in some parts of Western Europe. But at a minimum, he said, he was hoping to hear Obama speak forcefully in defense of a government option.

“What I want to hear and what I’m going to hear are two different things,” he predicted.

At a table nearby, Charles Shamblee and his wife, Brigitte (pictured below), both African American business consultants, were having dinner with their daughter, Jazmyn, 7.

Charles Shamblee also gave the president mixed marks.

“I think he’s done as good as he could under the circumstance,” he said. “He inherited a mess.”

Shamblee said he felt Obama was too quick to bail out the big banks – “I think he gave a lot of money to the wrong people. I was taken aback” -- but he said he favored the president’s aid to the U.S. auto industry

As for Obama’s handling of the health care debate: “It’s too early to tell,” he said. “Ask me when he’s done tonight.”

But then Shamblee quickly added: “I want to see him stand up and take a stand on something. I don’t think he’s been a leader on this issue.

Overall, the crowd listening to Obama’s speech seemed delighted by what they heard, frequently bursting into spontaneous applause and occasionally giving the president a standing ovation.

At one point, when Obama said he was willing to work with opponents but would not be stymied by them, Shamblee turned to me and said, “He got  a little aggressive there. I like that."

After the speech, Shamblee said he was disappointed that Obama had set a four-year goal for launching a national exchange to spark competition among health insurers. “We need that now,” he said.

Despite feeling better about the president’s assertiveness, Shamblee said Obama won’t get everything he wants in health care reform and would have to compromise with Republicans.

Still, he said, “I liked this speech.”

Martinat, meanwhile, said Obama “didn’t disappoint,” but he said he had hoped to hear the president use the phrase “government option,” which he never did, Martinat said.

He said his favorite part of the speech was when Obama said, “We did not come here to fear the future; we came to shape it.

“All I’ve heard is fear,” Martinat said, “on the left and on the right.”