Afs, the Affordable Healthcare Act passed 3.5 years ago. The date for cutover--October 1, 2013--was set 3.5 years ago. According to today's NYTimes, as far back as last March, Henry Chao, Obama's point man on online registration, was saying that he was "deeply worried" about the website's debut. "Let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience," he said.

I put the blame on Obama for not paying attention to this existential threat to his most important legislative achievement. Congress had tried to kill Obamacare 40 times before Oct. 1. Obama should have realized that a perfect cutover would have signed up millions of Americans, putting Congressional critics on the defensive. Instead, he acted as if the failure had nothing to do with him--he dissembled: "Gee, this shows how popular the program is." BS!

The US manned space program was far more complex than designing a computer system to sign on millions of people for health insurance. But successive Presidents (Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon) knew that it was vital to America's prestige that each manned launch succeed. They cared about their programs. Obama doesn't.