In the aftermath of his get-tough speech to a joint session of Congress, many pundits and Democrats are asserting that President Barack Obama has gotten his mojo back on the issue of health care and has given his party a clear road map to making it a reality.

How about a reality check? It was one speech, albeit a darn good one. But there is a ton of work left to be done. Democrats think they are amped to tackle health care, but his throwing down of the gauntlet no doubt will cause his conservative critics to work themselves up into a greater frenzy than what we've seen this summer.

Look at Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who looked like a total fool with his outburst during the president's speech. Even his fellow Republicans thought his "you lie!" scream was unbecoming of a sitting member of Congress. Yes, he apologized, but when you have conservative mouthpieces, such as Rush Limbaugh, defending him, expect to see others follow suit in the coming days.

But truth be told, the real battle won't be with the Republicans and those who continue to pass off outright lies and truths in this bill. (Cue the music for former Gov. Sarah Palin and her death panel claims.) The true test is whether President Obama will have the stomach to play the necessary hardball to win this fight.

The president often relished it when columnists, bloggers, radio talk show hosts and even his own party strategists lambasted him for not showing righteous indignation during the campaign or being willing to get down-and-dirty with his opponents. He would just smile, emphasize the slow and steady mantra, and do it his way. The president has been known to tell associates that after all the times he was ripped for doing it his way, he was the one who moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Yet this fight is unlike any he ever has faced. The millions of folks who voted against him and for Sen. John McCain didn't up and move to Canada or Mexico; they are still here. The right-wing media apparatus, willing to attack him at every turn, is ready to tear him to shreds from the moment he wakes up until he goes to sleep, and he is having to face his own party's unwillingness to find compromise among themselves to pass a health care bill.

This is the moment when Mr. Cool, Mr. Silky Smooth, Mr. Laid Back, The Big Easy — whatever you want to call him — is going to have to put his foot down, back some folks into a corner, and make it clear that it's his way or the highway.

He is going to have to stop acting as if the campaign is over. He's got millions of supporters who have been left on the sideline, unsure of what to say, where to go and what to do.

His staff is going to have to stop depending on the communicator-in-chief to shoulder the load. They are going to have to operate with the kind of efficiency that was a hallmark of his campaign. We have not seen that. We've seen a White House unsure of what the heck they want, different administration officials saying different things to different people, and his supporters crying that they are often in the dark about the daily messaging, forcing them to guess about the administration's motives, which leads to inconsistency and a muddled message.

President Obama's biggest problem with the health care debate wasn't a speech. It was his playing small ball, focusing on the back-and-forth nonsense in Washington instead of casting this fight as a moral one.

Cornell Belcher, one of the president's top pollsters during his campaign, told me Tuesday on my daily segment on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" that Obama needed to return to "going big" and cast the issue as a moral issue, which he tried to do by reading from a letter written by recently deceased former Sen. Ted Kennedy. Belcher made it clear that playing the game of D.C. simply would get him farther from his "change" mantra, thus confusing and angering his base.

No longer can President Obama leave this issue in the hands of Congress. He can't leave it to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to pull the levers. This is the time for President Obama to eschew his Teflon image; he must get dirty and apply the pressure to get the bill passed.

If he doesn't, he will have failed in his first year to deliver on his No. 1 campaign promise. And there is a good chance he can kiss a Democratic Congress goodbye. The opposition will be emboldened by defeating the president on health care; his own party will be demoralized; and his agenda for the next three years will be irrelevant.

His horrible summer and tremendous erosion in public support on this issue have left him vulnerable. Only he can dig himself out of this hole.

We know him as a tremendous visionary and communicator. Now is the time to see whether he can become the take-charge leader. True leaders are baptized by fire. Well, the White House is in flames, and the onus is squarely on his shoulders to show America that he has the right stuff.

Game on, Mr. President.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.