American Elephants

Oh dear. President Obama’s spirited defense of ObamaCare today in the Rose Garden didn’t exactly go well.  He had a group of people behind him who supposedly had successfully become insured under ObamaCare, but they actually turned out to be people who intended to sign up really soon, rather than those who had completed the process.

The government won’t release the numbers of people who have succeeded in signing up until the numbers are big enough to actually look good. That’s not what anyone said, but the inevitable conclusion. The president was intent on putting a good face on the problems, but not his face. Not his fault, and he’s really disappointed with the problems.

But the problem has been that the website that’s supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody.  And there’s no sugarcoating it.  The website has been too slow, people have been getting stuck during the application process.  And I think it’s fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am — precisely because the product is good, I want the cash registers to work.  I want the checkout lines to be smooth.  So I want people to be able to get this great product.  And there’s no excuse for the problems, and these problems are getting fixed.

This is the usual Obama response. It is not his fault, he minimizes the problems, joins with you in disapproval — but  it’s a great product, will save you money, and preexisting conditions, affordable and preexisting conditions.

The commentary from across the media has been devastating. Maureen Dowd said “he assumed his favorite role of the shining knight hectoring the benighted: Sir Lecturealot.” James Taranto called it “Vaporcare” and said Obama delivers an infomercial when an accounting is due.” And the parodies and mockery are on the rise and growing. I loved this one.  Just click on the Apply button.

The administration would do much better to just admit that they have a giant fiasco, and tell the people what they are going to do about it. They should have taken the Republican offer of a year’s delay, but they didn’t recognize a good offer when it was presented to them.