There has been a great deal written about the failed rollout of Obamacare, much of which I have not read. Still, it strikes me that there are some key aspects of this rollout, and what it says about the President, that are worth emphasizing. (I apologize if others have made these points.)
1. The failed rollout obviously exhibits tremendous incompetence on the part of the Obama Administration and the President. This is the signature “achievement” of the Obama Presidency but they failed miserably on this key aspect.
2. The incompetence does not merely extend to the design of the website. It also extends to the failure to know that the website was failed. If the Administration had known of the failure, they could have delayed the implementation of Obamacare.
3. The incompetence also extends to politics. The Administration had a perfect excuse for delaying the rollout of Obamacare. It could have “reluctantly” agreed with the Republicans and delayed the implementation for a year. It could have been sold as showing that Obama was willing to work with his political opponents. He was a compromiser.
4. Yet, the Obama Administration was unwilling to compromise or work with its opponents (even when it was to its own benefit). This unwillingness is a characteristic of Obama both with respect to Obamacare (which was written so that no Republicans voted for it) and Obama’s policies generally.
5. Finally, the Obama Administration chose, instead of compromise, to employ what may very well be illegal methods for delaying the implementation. And again this preference for unilateral executive action of questionable legality for working with the Congress and the other party is characteristic of the Obama Administration.
6. In the end, the rollout of Obamacare displayed the central characteristics of this Administration. In much the same way that the Iraq War exhibited the key features of the Bush Administration (both good and bad), the Obamacare rollout does with respect to the Obama Administration.
