They’re genuinely surprised, but at what are they surprised? They couldn’t possibly be surprised that the obviously unworkable mechanics of Obama Care and a shoddily thrown together website aren’t working, so what’s going on here?
Could it be that Obama Care was never intended to get this far and was a “Red Herring” all along? As Obama Care was such an obviously unworkable plan, the Democrats knew the Republicans would find a way to prevent it from ever coming to fruition, and the Democrats would be left with the “issue.” Obama could then demonize the Republicans for preventing “affordable” medical care for every American citizen and use it to rally his base at election time.
However, as it turned out, they either overestimated the Republican Party, or the Republicans saw this disaster coming and just stepped aside and let the Democrat Party shoot themselves in the foot.
It's partially just partisan politics as usual, but mostly the latter. Obamacare was always too fantastical to work in the real world. The Republicans knew this, but they were in the minority, and couldn't convince the Dems of their folly. They wisely stepped back and let the Dems seal their fate.
-— I find it hard to believe none of them bothered to read it and understand it for themselves, so what’s their game?-—
It’s an impossible task. Maybe some lawyers could understand it, if they spent their entire lives studying it.
So they followed the path of least resistance, like most people, and played for the short term.
The next short-term play is to claim to have supported keep-your-old-insurance legislation. They don’t care if it passes. They just want to cover their butts.