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Error Message - Obama's spin on Healthcare.gov may only make things worse
Slate ^ | October 22, 2013 | John Dickerson

Posted on 10/22/2013 2:58:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

President Obama is a gifted politician and knows how to win an election. But his spin on Healthcare.gov may only make things worse

______________________________

An IT problem has never escalated faster than the president's Rose Garden speech Monday addressing the problems with Healthcare.gov. He could no longer outsource responding to user complaints. At first, the White House had said the headaches signing people up for health care coverage were just technical glitches, but now the sheer number of those glitches defies that explanation. Reporting about deeper systemic problems suggest that fixes will not come quickly. As my colleague Matthew Yglesias explains, adding more bodies to the problem adds more complexity, which may exacerbate the problem. It's hard to untangle Christmas lights by committee.

Barack Obama doesn’t like to play the action-hero president where the application of his overwhelming will is supposed to directly correlate with a snappy solution. There are too many constraints on the presidency—Congress, a fickle public, world leaders, a $17 trillion economy, and the vagaries of time and space. But with the botched Obamacare rollout,the president was applying all the rhetorical torque he could muster. "Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should," Obama said on Monday, "which means it's going to get fixed."

Rhetoric and will isn't going to solve this problem. That helped the president triumph over the government shutdown and debt limit crisis, when through determination and superior political positioning he out maneuvered his Republican opponents. Now he has a different kind of challenge—an operational challeng—where his talent for politics and persuasion are less useful and may even make matters worse. Putting a good spin on things only sets expectations that can then be dashed by reality.

It’s a challenge of the president's own making.........

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: obama; obamacare; obamafail; obamafraud
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1 posted on 10/22/2013 2:58:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

It’s beginning to sound like the Space Shuttle Challenger. Warned of problems, management went ahead and launched.


2 posted on 10/22/2013 3:06:56 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
In the first several days, administration officials spoke of "glitches," and Secretary Sebelius asked that people give the government the same amount of slack Apple gets when it launches a new product. But the administration dropped that analogy because, unlike Apple's quick admission that Apple Maps was a mess, the government can't just let users install Google Maps (and there have been no quick firings for the mess, as there were at Apple).

The difference between government monopoly and private industry in a nutshell; with the government running everything there is no accountability, no contrition, no correction, no alternatives. The cronies "control" everything and public be damned.

3 posted on 10/22/2013 3:17:24 AM PDT by Flick Lives (The U.S. is dead to me.)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie
It’s beginning to sound like the Space Shuttle Challenger.

In this particular case, I'll be rooting for the gremlins and that the whole thing goes down in flames.

4 posted on 10/22/2013 3:18:30 AM PDT by grobdriver
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To: Flick Lives
If Barky had run so much as one lemonade stand in his life he would have learned the lesson to always under promise and over deliver. The reverse leads directly to bankruptcy.

Like bad drivers love Volvos for self-preservation, bad employees love government jobs.

5 posted on 10/22/2013 3:26:36 AM PDT by Reeses
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should,"

Ooooh, that's some powerful language and I'm sure the techies are shaking in their flip-flops............

6 posted on 10/22/2013 3:34:37 AM PDT by varon ( para bellum, remove Obama)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

He had to read off the teleprompter that he was the one who was the most upset.
Maybe he can fix obamacare by putting it on the teleprompter that it is all fixed and will let you keep the insurance you have as well as your doctor,and lower your premium 2500 dollars.
Oh you say,those features of obamacare have nothing to do with the computer failures,good I was worried there for a moment


7 posted on 10/22/2013 3:43:46 AM PDT by ballplayer
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

That helped the president triumph over the government shutdown and debt limit crisis, when through determination and superior political positioning he out maneuvered his Republican opponents.


That one cracked me up.

It wasn’t just me that said Cruz was putting up that fight in the beginning to use as political fodder when this thing crashes. It was pretty easy to see this coming.

Oh, and the crash of Obamacare is just beginning. This is going to be a VERY interestin six months. Kinda like the first six months of this year were - only more so.

I feel a little like an anti-Hitler German in Berlin in early 1945. I relish at my fearless leader’s collapse, but then I see the Russian troops coming and, well, I guess you have to see the silver lining and long term.


8 posted on 10/22/2013 3:44:05 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

It’s beginning to sound like the Space Shuttle Challenger. Warned of problems, management went ahead and launched.


For those of us in IT this was an easy call when the first problems were reported. Management driven dates, no time for testing. converting 30 man days of work into 30 contractors doing it in one day...stuff like that.

I’ve witnessed such disasters in my career and this one looks to be the biggest and most impactive in the history of electronic computing.

It’s kinda fun to watch, in a sort of schadenfreude way. :-)


9 posted on 10/22/2013 3:46:33 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: grobdriver

“In this particular case, I’ll be rooting for the gremlins and that the whole thing goes down in flames.”

As long as Ted Cruz & the House Republicans are prepared to defend a free-market solution to the Obamacare mess we’ll be OK. I worry about the gravitational pull of government single-payer, because that is where the next move will be.


10 posted on 10/22/2013 3:47:19 AM PDT by Tallguy (Leave the gun, take the cannolis.)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

Tossing this in here:

Did the last minute “patch” requiring people to sign up first before seeing any product (and being blamed as one reason this govt site isn’t working) happen so Obamacare salesmen could play with a marked deck and move applicants around in order to showcase “young and healthy” were filling up slots - “salt the mine” so to speak and encourage more to sign up?

If so, it didn’t work.

Judging from those human props (and their WH press released stories) flown in to stand behind Obama for the Rose Garden sales pitch, the Obamacare salesmen can’t advertise it as “sold.”

Obama had pitched this as, “will be as easy as buying a plane ticket online.”

Fail.


11 posted on 10/22/2013 3:48:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The theme of this article is that talk is not what is going to fix this - and talk is all this empty suit has. This is what I’ve been expecting since 2009 - an event so public and so failed that all but the most koolaid drenched will see him for what he is - a talker. A promiser. A speaker.

But not a leader.

I just didn’t expect it to take so long.


12 posted on 10/22/2013 3:48:38 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: All
Now you have to ask yourself----why did "His Greatness" heave himself into the Rose Garden to speak to his subjects?

I refer now to "Rush's Theorem": he endlessly golfs and vacays b/c he can't appear to be governing. B/c he would have to take responsibility when things go wrong

Precisely what's happened here----he's tied like a squealing pig to Obamacare---w/ all it's flops and failures.

So he's forced to address his subjects to reassure them he's as great as he told them he is.

================================================

AS FREEPER SICKOFLIBS INSIGHTFULLY POSTED: If we oppose Obama’s Brave New World of socialist initiatives then we are responsible when things go wrong, not Obama. Benevolent Obama is all-knowing, all-wise. Between golf games and vacays, he can do no wrong.

13 posted on 10/22/2013 3:48:40 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

ERROR MESSAGE

14 posted on 10/22/2013 3:49:08 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: varon
""Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should,"
Ooooh, that's some powerful language"

It may or may not be powerful, but it's certainly not even proper English.

One might say: "I am mad. Nobody is madder than I am." You can even shorten that to: "Nobody is madder than I."

You would never say: "Me is mad. Nobody is madder than me is."

You would think this Harvard educated genius could speak proper English. Oh, wait, maybe he wasn't a US citizen when he was educated in his proper native language.

15 posted on 10/22/2013 3:51:09 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: ballplayer

I’ve been on IT projects managed by little napoleon managers that went south.

Thing is, if you are a jerk manager, getting your people to fix the problem is a bit like getting your dog to stop chasing the squirrel. The only way you can actually control him is with one of those remote control shock collars.

I’ve seen IT guys come in and work diligently, day after day, on a problem like this, and get nowhere. ;-)


16 posted on 10/22/2013 3:51:21 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: Liz

Precisely what’s happened here——he’s tied like a squealing pig to Obamacare-—w/ all it’s flops and failures.


And I believe Cruz knew this would happen when giving his “Dr. Suess” speech. He was just building a foundation.

This is really becoming excellent entertainment watching a leader scream at his army of ten to beat an army of 10,000 and honestly appear to believe that it will work.


17 posted on 10/22/2013 3:54:18 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: cuban leaf

Like one woman birthing a baby in nine months or nine women birthing a baby in one month, huh?!


18 posted on 10/22/2013 3:57:14 AM PDT by Real Cynic No More (Border Fence Obamacare!)
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To: ballplayer
Mark Levin noticed he should have said "Nobody's madder than I," instead of using "me."
19 posted on 10/22/2013 3:58:24 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: All

"Carney hasn't told you yet---but I was recently diagnosed w/ 'transient global amnesia.'"

"But only on the subjects of Obamacare, Benghazi, Syria, and my golf score."

"I'm having an episode right now----relapsing back to
my days as a tuba player in my high school marching band.'

20 posted on 10/22/2013 3:59:13 AM PDT by Liz
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