My must read of the day is "White House returns to Obamacare sales mode," in Politico:
After two months of intense coverage of the botched HealthCare.gov rollout, the president will host a White House event kicking off a three-week drive to refocus the public on the law’s benefits, senior administration officials told Politico.
The White House will take the lead in emphasizing a different benefit each day until the Dec. 23 enrollment deadline for Jan. 1 coverage. The daily message will be amplified through press events and social media by Democratic members of Congress, the Democratic National Committee, congressional campaign committees and advocacy organizations, officials said. […]
"Healthcare.gov met our self-imposed November 30th deadline and even as we continue to make improvements to the website, we’ll also remind the public about how the Affordable Care Act is already making a positive difference in the lives of millions of Americans today," said Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman. "The benefits of these consumer protections will only accumulate in the weeks and months ahead."
The premise of this sales push is flawed. The flaw: Only the White House seems to believe the website is fixed.
The persistent focus on website flaws is not merely a Republican vendetta. Even the New York Times editorial board says the website still has "major hurdles to surmount" and the latest fixes "won’t be enough unless the final back-end stage of enrollment is fixed as well."
The administration is trying to move the focus to another issue without addressing the problem at hand.
The argument that the website isn’t working well but "the product is good" didn't work the first time because the original issue wasn’t solved. It still isn’t solved, and it’s unlikely it will work this time either.
Until the back-end of the website is fixed, neither the public nor the media will be ready to change the topic.