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Keller @ Large: Stop Rooting For Obamacare Failure And Stop Pretending It's Run Well

BOSTON (CBS) - "It's time for folks to stop rooting for its failure," says the president of the federal health care law, and I couldn't agree more.

The avowed goals of Obamacare – affordable coverage for those who don't have it and relief from ever-higher costs for everyone else – are very much worth pursuing, and honest, thoughtful efforts to realize them are to be applauded, not disparaged.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

Keller at Large Oct 22 2013

Unfortunately for the president and his enablers, though, the most notable aspects of the law so far have been its grotesque politicization and incompetent management.

Think back to the winter of 2009-2010, when the people who knew the most about state-sponsored health-care reform, the residents of the most staunchly-Democratic state in the nation, sent a clear message to the White House that concern over the impact of this onerous, ineptly-vetted new law was not just the province of Tea Party members and Obama haters.

That would be the people of Massachusetts, specifically scores of moderates, independents and union members who elected Scott Brown to the Senate specifically, if not exclusively, because he vowed to send Obamacare back to the drawing board.

The response was to ram the law through anyway on a straight party-line vote, an orgy of partisanship that demonstrated contempt for legitimate qualms about the way the thing was written.

No wonder Obamacare has continued to be politically toxic. You reap what you sow.

And now the sheer incompetence of its White House overseers, which was first reported to me awhile back by liberal Democrats who worked on Obamacare early on, is manifest in the website debacle.

Yes, Obamacare's critics who root for its failure shouldn't do so.

And Democrats shouldn't pretend the fiasco we're seeing now isn't all that bad.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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