Will Kathleen Sebelius Win in the End? Legacy Tied to Obamacare’s Outcome

[DonViejo]

Michael Tomasky

Yes, there was utter failure, but there was also one hell of a recovery. As time goes on, she'll get less blame for the former and more credit for the latter.

It was always going to be a tough job, Health and Human Services secretary under this president. Even so, I’d bet Kathleen Sebelius was plenty shocked at the whole business.

True, she was only a second-string nominee, after Tom Daschle had to bow out because of those tax problems. But Sebelius still should have had little to fear. After all, she’d been the Democratic governor of a ruby-red state, Kansas. In a state where Republicans outnumbered Democrats roughly two-to-one, she won reelection in 2006 with 57 percent of the vote. She got one of the state’s prominent Republicans to switch parties and run with her for lieutenant governor.

So yes, it must have shocked when only eight Republicans voted to confirm her, while 31 voted against. Four-to-one against?! What had she done that was so bad? The answer was: nothing. Oh, Republicans invoked her “ties” to a Wichita doctor who performed abortions. But really, it was what she was going to do. She was going to be a point person on health-care reform, and they needed to ding her.

Today, and in the near future, she will have to endure being associated with the massive fiasco that was the launch of healthcare.gov. And that’s deserved. It’s hard to imagine what she was doing last summer instead of spending every waking minute ensuring that the initiative for which this administration will remembered, the one thing that will color and even determine its historical legacy, was going to launch well. But it happened.

I don’t know how many times she got dragged up to the Hill and asked the same questions by all those Republican solons, striving to win the “let’s use this guy!” competition for the cable nets and NPR and the nightly newscasts, but it seemed like she was up there almost every day for a spell. On the surface, it all looked disastrous.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/10/did-kathleen-sebelius-win-in-the-end-legacy-tied-to-obamacare-s-outcome.html

[monmouth3]

1. I would bet she is glad and relieved to be out of there. She'll be fine..n/t

[JoePhilly]

2. A couple weeks of technical delay versus

what will be years with millions covered.

Bottom line: site goal of 7 million by end of march Exceeded.

Game over.

[kimbutgar]

3. I see her running for the Senate in a couple of years

[Arkana]

7. Hell, maybe she should run for Governor in Kansas again.

Undo all the shit Brownpants (or whatever the hell his name is) did.

[beerandjesus]

4. She already HAS won.

We made it to 2014. Obamacare is here to stay.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. Did you hear?

About all the snafu's that went along with the roll-out of Social Security back in 1935?

You haven't?

That's because nobody fucking cares anymore. And 80 years from now -- hell TEN years from now -- nobody is going to remember or much less care that the website for the ACA didn't work well during its first 30 days of operation.

[marshall]

11. In 2063 nobody will care about the disastrous rollout

They will be focused on new issues, including how to keep it going and how to improve benefits.

I stopped hearing gripes about the social security roll out in the early eighties, as most of those who were adults in 1935 started dying off. I predict it will be the same here. So we all just need to fasten our seat belts and wait for 2063. It will be here faster than we can imagine.

[Arkana]

6. She's won already.

Obamacare is officially a success after overcoming almost impossible odds, and now she's not in the administration anymore she can't be targeted by conservatives looking to score political points by asking her gotcha questions on C-SPAN.

She's beaten them and they don't even know it yet.

[savalez]

8. Exactly

Here's a good read on that:

Kathleen Sebelius is resigning because Obamacare has won

...the law has won its survival. The Obama administration can exhale. Personnel changes can be made. A new team — led by Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Matthews Burwell, who the White House calls a proven manager— can be brought in to continue to improve the law. And Sebelius can leave with her head held high. She can leave with the law she helped build looking, shockingly, like a success.

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/10/5602670/kathleen-sebelius-is-resigning-because-obamacare-has-won

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. I claim no personal knowledge about what she was doing (or not doing)

prior to the launch of ACA but does anybody honestly think that she was twiddling her thumbs somewhere not paying attention to things? Also, this is a freakin' website that we are talking about here. Nobody died, adjustments were made, and the problems were fixed and they met the enrollment target by the end of last month. If I were her, I'd consider it a job well done and call it a day.

[IronLionZion]

10. Comlplex IT projects are much different than health policy

She will be remembered more for helping millions of Americans get health insurance.