"It's a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health insurance plans, side by side, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak-same way you shop for a TV on Amazon."

So one can't help but wonder at this point... why not just market policies through Amazon? Or eBay, or Priceline, etc? After all, it already exists, it does what's needed, and it wouldn't have cost the taxpayer a dime. Guess that would have been too easy.

""Starting on Tuesday," Obama said in a Maryland speech less than a week before the exchanges opened, "every American can visit HealthCare.gov to find…the insurance marketplace for your state." Using the exchange would be "real simple," he said. "It's a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health insurance plans, side by side, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak-same way you shop for a TV on Amazon."

Cohen, the senior exchange official, sang the same tune to Congress in February: "We have been hard at work to ensure the Marketplaces will be easy to use when they become operational."

Reality: As Obama and Cohen were making their promises, they had no idea whether the site would even be functional. "

See, I don't see this as a lie told by Obama.

I see this as complete and utter incompetence on Obama's part and at worse criminal (lying before Congress) or at best just total incompetence on Cohen's part.

But certainly not a lie told by Obama!!

It's still">http://tinyurl.com/lnmlael">still there.

This is me, totes hating negligent & malformed html.

It's still there.

The thing that I see about the website failure is no one was fired.

Look at Carly Fiorina. The stock price dropped to half and she was finally forced out.

Meanwhile Kathleen Sebelius spends $800M on a website and three years and doesn't get it right and she still has her job. WTF?

"Meanwhile Kathleen Sebelius spends $800M on a website and three years and doesn't get it right and she still has her job. WTF?" - Jim P.

This is the issue. Obama cannot fire Sebelius. Otherwise, he would appear sexist, one of the things that Democrats accuse Republicans of being. Now, if it was John Kerry in charge, he could fire him and there would be no consequences. Too bad he made him Secretary of State.

People who voted for Obama and liked Obama seem determined to keep liking Obama.

There seems to be a segment of the American electorate that looks for and needs a leader-hero to worship; that cannot elect a president as simply a person with a job to do, but must have him be an object of idol worship.

It's not unique to the left or the right. Some on the right have deified Reagan beyond what her merited, while some on the left tried to deify Bill Clinton.

That Reagan merited a significant amount of the reverence accorded him and that his stature has grown over time seems to irk leftists, who are determined to find a modern counterweight to his legendary status - even if they have to invent it out of the scantiest of materials.

Obama has failed to live up to his messianic advanced billing. His presidency is now approaching free fall. Nonetheless, the legend builders of the left are determined to build a heroic legacy for him - despite his steadily shrinking stature.

Meanwhile, the lone and level sand stretch far away.

But certainly not a lie told by Obama!!

So, that's what one calls a claim that isn't true?

"It's a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health insurance plans, side by side, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak-same way you shop for a TV on Amazon."

The difference being that Kayak and Amazon actually work and when I'm done, I have completed a financial transaction and that I'm pretty sure that the seller has all the data necessary to fulfill the order. And if they don't they'll contact me in short order.

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” -- George Orwell

"People who voted for Obama and liked Obama seem determined to keep liking Obama."

Obamanism is a religion.

Obamanism is the fourth Reich.

"This is the issue. Obama cannot fire Sebelius."

Nobody lost their job over 9/11, either.

Must be some sort of government reward system.

Nobody lost their job over 9/11, either. ~ Posted by: Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 15, 2014 5:18 PM

There's a bit of a difference in the two failures.

9/11 was a paradigm shift. Using hijacked passenger airlines as missiles was something that had never been done before (certainly not on that scale). Even knowing that a hijacking was being planned was not enough to signal so dramatic a shift in tactics. The failure came in that the disparate pieces of evidence were not put together until too late. For that, perhaps, there should have been firings, but it was not obvious what was going to happen.

The failure of healthcare.gov was entirely foreseeable and preventable. It was nothing new. Building a mass market Web site had been done before ... many times and by many organizations. This was a failure of management, not a paradigm shift.

Nobody lost their job over 9/11, either. -- Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 15, 2014 5:18 PM

Bill Maher was fired for 9/11.

Bill Maher was fired for his speech, which is very disturbing, especially on a show CALLED "Politically Incorrect." By the way, his firing and the demise of the show cost me a good bit of money. (I used to appear on PI as a guest.) -- Amy Alkon at January 16, 2014 11:31 PM

I know it was for what he said. And I agree that it was unjust. I was trying to point out to Gog that not everything fits into the same box.

Amy, it appears that you though the PI was infinite. How could you be so wrong?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist that setup. ;-)