Step Up Mr. President

While the unpatriotic and anti-democratic obstructionism from the right analyzed so well by Mann & Ornstein provides a contextual factor that makes it clear the current harm being inflicted on regular American families would have been either avoided or nearly so in a more sane context...

...there is no denying how deeply disappointed I am with the President on this one. I am not all that concerned about the specific campaign promise, because (1) it is a campaign promise and (2) competent implementation would have erased the broken promise concern.

I am concerned about what was avoidable. The roll out could have been, should have been, accomplished without major disruption or delay or confusion. It was not. It is still unclear it can be fixed.

I am concerned that this failure does damage to three things I value:

...a step toward universal health care coverage (albeit through supporting the private sector insurance system, which was not my prefered approach, nor the least costly approach) that can still provide immensely valuable help to American families, communities, and companies;

...a presidential legacy, which has been distorted from day one by birthers and others unwilling to respect the outcome of elections, now tarnished at our own hands;

...our already crippled trust for, and understanding of, the positive role government at all levels can play in supporting a stable and more egalitarian free market system.