Unbelievably incompetent

Obama "blindsided" by Obamacare problems

Kathleen Sebelius says President Barack Obama didn't hear that there may be problems with the sign-up portal for his signature health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – aka Obamacare - until it went live on October 1.

You have got to be kidding me.

If he didn’t know, then as a leader he was not asking the right questions and that is inexcusable. If he wasn’t told, then he was being served by incompetent subordinates – and that is being charitable.

One basic rule of management: You, the manager, never should be surprised when things go wrong. In fact, a wise manager expects it and prepares for it. By the same token, competent subordinates never, ever, ever, let the boss get blindsided, especially if they are aware that something MIGHT go wrong.

So, President Obama did not know until the web portal for his most important legislative achievement was rolled out to serve the public that it was in deep trouble and had serious problems with it implementation. Ah, that is not the fault of the Tea Party. It is not the fault of Congress. It IS the fault of the man in the Oval Office and his immediate staff. That he didn’t know about it does not absolve him of any of the responsibility for the disaster that has occurred since Oct. 1.

President Obama needs to take note that, as President Harry Truman said in a legendary sign on his desk, the buck stops there, in the president’s office. No where else. It is not the fault of the Health and Human Services secretary, regardless of whether she is willing to fall on her own sword or not. It does not fall on his chief of staff, or the various people on down the government food chain that oversaw the development (at a cost of more than a half-billion dollars) of the program that was supposed to be as easy as booking a flight on Travelocity, the online travel agency (and that is pretty easy. I have used it for more than 15 years).

That Sebelius still has a job is amazing. That people are letting her be the fall guy is appalling. Yes, she bears some responsibility – it was her people who were supposed to get it right and to warn her (which apparently they did) when it looked like there would be problems so she could give the boss the heads up that things were not going to be hunky dory, but the buck does stop with the president and he should be lopping off heads.

Of course, that is not going to happen. You see, it seems (and I may be wrong) that in the progressive/liberal mindset there should be no consequences for failure. No, that would be unfair and inhumane. Because all people are good people and bad things never should happen to such people.

Well, if you buy that, as the old saying goes, I have some oceanfront property to sell you in Arizona.

Now, even good people make mistakes and sometimes even do bad things. The problem we have is there has been a track record of no accountability and it is plaguing our entire social construct in the United States. 

Unfortunately, it appears that our leader is one of the worst offenders in this department.

People, we have a problem in this country and it goes straight to the top. We have a leader who refuses to engage and who seems never to accept that the burden of leadership makes it his fault, not his subordinates, when things go wrong … and when things go dreadfully wrong, it is even more important that the leader step up and assume the mantle of responsibility.

Short of him resigning, which would be the proper thing to do, we will have to put up with three more years (after five already) of this incompetence. Bend over, as the saying goes, and get used to it (if you aren’t already).

Lastly, as a retired newspaper editor, I am deeply saddened by my compatriots in the journalism profession for their failure to pillory this administration for its incompetence. However, I have grown to expect it.