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
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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 ...
Cuccinelli needs to use it ---to keep up the rant against O/care---b/c smug Hillary came to Va to campaign for McAwful (and so did Billy Boy).
The two demons presence there means the Dem vote fraud meat grinder is being readied for Cuccinelli.
Yep. "Nobody's madder than me" is not only bad grammar, it is the Limbaugh Theorem expressed in four words.
Great point.
Mythical Man Month. I think that is where your example came from.
:-)
There was a dilbert cartoon where the manager told dilbert that a project was going to take, like, 180 days, so he was going to hire 180 contractors and get it done in a day.
Wow. A flying train-dive bomber. Very impressive. Is that from World War II?
Bump!
right after the roll out OCT 1st 2013
I have not visited that vile website and never will.
I was on a liberal site yesteday, and a LIBERAL told of his friend using his computer to try to sign up. Here are the comments he made:
This is rather strange. I have a friend in my home right now that connected with healthcare.gov and got through when I had him go through the state exchange. After confirming with his email, and when he reconnected with healthcare.gov, he was asked whether he had purchased veterinarian insurance in the last two years. I have owned the cat that he was asked this question about for over four years. (He moved to a condominium complex where he could not have the cat and I took ownership of the animal at that time.) I have never purchased insurance for the animal as I take care of its needs, excluding rabies shots which I must go to a vet for by law, at home using supplies from the farm goods store.
This event raises alarms in my mind because animal insurance has nothing at all to do with human insurance. What is the actual purpose of the site? Is it to collect more information on Americans and United States residents for spycraft?
The site gives you the option of not entering your SS#, and he opted not to. His name is not uncommon, though also not common. The site picked his location from my IP address (common) and then picked out who he was from my IP. There are only three others in SLC with the same name as he. This means that they concluded who he was through association with me and the use of my IP address.
I tell people all the time that they need beware of data mining. The US gov is among the least proficient data miners.
The healthcare.gov also automatically sent his information to the state Department of Workforce Services for enrollment in Medicare, while not giving him a price for insurance.
It really is amazing how bad this is. Now, people are losing their coverage, and may actually want help from the govt, and Obama screwed it up. I HOPE people figure out who is to blame.
The problems
1) Sole source (no-bid) contract
2) A Canadian contractor with a track record of failures
3) A program (Obamamcare) with undefined and changing requirements, causing numerous change orders adding more costs to the program.
Government solution: throw more money at it
What could go wrong?
Unless the site sends 404, it broken.
naaa that’s the mountain dew doing that ;)
I bet he is sitting ion the Oval office kicking his own ass that he did not postpone it for a year like the republican asked.
Another way of putting it is that ObamaCare isn't just a technical failure. And it isn't just an economically unsustainable scheme. Now it's a rhetorical disaster too. Even by the standards of Obama speeches it was terrible. It was so bad, it was the ObamaCare website of political oratory.
It's the ShamWow!
From BOTW.
Obama's audience this morning consisted in part of purported ObamaCare beneficiaries, but the Washington Examiner's Byron York looked at their stories and found "it's clear the administration was stretching to present people who, beyond supporting Obamacare, have actually gained from it in any tangible way":
For example, a Pennsylvania man named Malik Hassan was in the group, and this is the White House description of his situation, in full: "Malik Hassan works at a restaurant in Philadelphia. Hassan, who does not receive coverage through his employer, is looking forward to enrolling for health coverage this fall. He recently used Healthcare.gov. to process his application and is waiting for the options for potential plans in Philadelphia." . . .
Then there is Nathaniel Hojnacki, who recently finished his schooling. Here is the White House description of his situation, again in full: "Nathaniel Hojnacki recently received his Master's degree at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and is in an employment situation without benefits. Hojnacki recognizes the importance of coverage and is planning to enroll after he explores his coverage options on the DC exchange." . . .
Then there is LaJuanna Russell, of Virginia. Here is the White House description of her situation, in its entirety: "LaJuanna Russell is the owner of Business Management Associates, a consulting company in Alexandria, Virginia. Russell says she is proud to offer her employees health insurance but that it can be difficult for a small business. Russell believes that the ACA provides stability for her and her employees and is exploring what new coverage options will be available to her company under the exchanges."
Then there is another small business owner, Zohre Abolfazli of Tennessee. Here is the White House description of her situation, in its entirety: "Zohre Abolfazli has owned a small business outside of Nashville, Tennessee for almost twenty-five years. Even though she has been able to maintain her health insurance over the years, it has been a challenge to find affordable, comprehensive health insurance in the individual market place. Last night, Abolfazli was able to register through HealthCare.gov and now plans to comparison shop for the best plan that meets her budget and needs."
Of the 13 White House success stories, only 2 actually seem to have bought policies through the exchanges. A few others have benefited from those other ObamaCare provisions that, according to the president, "you may not have noticed." But you'd think the White House would be able to come up with a baker's dozen people who've actually benefited in some way. And again, none of the success stories involve people who've willingly signed up to pay higher premiums--those without whom ObamaCare's economics cannot work.
Obama ended his speech on a characteristically antagonistic note, denouncing Republicans and saying: "It's time for folks to stop rooting for its failure." As one who has indeed been rooting for failure, we must say we agree. It's time for folks--above all the "folk" who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue--to acknowledge its failure.
Oh man, just had some nasty flash-backs there! When you sincerely want to deliver a good product and you're on the receiving end of that kind of management incompetence, it's painful...
This is totally beyond the pale and will be the Prime Rib of IT Follies and Bloopers of the Ages.
As a software engineer I’ve seen plenty of bad ideas put into projects, but no company on earth would ever go forward and implement a package of this scope and breadth without testing.
A review of internal architectural diagrams obtained by the AP revealed the system's complexity. Insurance applicants have a host of personal information verified, including income and immigration status. The system connects to other federal computer networks, including ones at the Social Security Administration, IRS, Veterans Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps.".......... Insiders who worked on US health website describe high stress, complaints about major problems
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