Politics, Society

Reid: Administration’s Mismanagement Of Obamacare Rollout Cost The Election

225px-harry_reid_official_portraitPresident_Barack_ObamaWe have been seeing leading Democrats going public recently with their views that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare” was a political blunder or a simply poorly drafted mistake. This included the third-highest ranked Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who said that it was a mistake to even try to pass the legislation in the first term when most Americans did not place health care as a priority for action. Now the highest ranked Democrat, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, is saying that the Obama Administration may have doomed Democrats in Congress with its poor management and blunders in the rollout of the program.

Reid told the New York Times: “We never recovered from the rollout because the election became one that was directed toward the president. We couldn’t overcome that.”

What is curious is that at the time many Democrats adopted largely a denial approach that borders on delusion. There were no widespread calls from Democrats for Sebelius to be fired, the subject of a past column. The rollout failure was one of the most costly in the history of his country and there were ample indicators of the coming failure. I still remain unsure why the Democrats were not more open about such views at the time. As they plunged in the polls, there continued to be a circling of the wagons around the Administration on what was a legitimate criticism of its management.

In the end, I am not sure whether it was the rollout alone that doomed the Democrats given other issues like immigration. With the defeat of Landrieu, there is not a single national-level Democrat in any office in the Deep South. The Democrats are now at their lowest level of representation since World War II in Congress. That seems more than just the rollout. Schumer blames the ACA itself, but there still appears division among the Democrats as to the cause.

163 thoughts on “Reid: Administration’s Mismanagement Of Obamacare Rollout Cost The Election”

  2. Reid: Administration’s Mismanagement Of Obamacare Rollout Cost The Election

    Crocodile tears.

    Someone please tell Mr. Reid and his ilk in congress you reap the harvest you sow.

  4. If Americans had a form of National healthcare they liked the graph would jump in the opposite direction. Europeans wouldn’t trade their healthcare system for ours and polls indicate they are very satisfied with their healthcare.

    1. Inga – you can get used to prison. Better the devil you know sort of thing.

  10. Inga, @2:33 I gave you a link to a meta-study of a huge number of opinion surveys gauging Americans’ attitude toward single-payer. You can google the most recent polls and you won’t find anything different.

    But instead of simply facing the facts, you’ve thrown up one irrelevant link after another.

    Ideologue.

  11. Realistically I think it breaks down just like the rest of America. Slightly more liberals than conservatives. No Chip, it doesn’t mean that you’re in favor of single payer, don’t mischaracterize.

  12. Randyjet
    “It sounds like your best friend had health insurance through Dallas ISD which is why it was so cheap. They simply did what AA tried to do in getting rid of your health care plan. That is why her rates went up, NOT because of ACA.”

    Did I blame the ACA? Or did you assume that?

  14. Randyjet
    “Think that Obama is to blame for AA trying to screw you too?”

    Uh, did I say that? Or did you assume it?

  17. From Inga’s NYT link:

    There are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors’ advocates in those and other states.

    Who needs data when you’ve got an unsourced assertion from the NYT?

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