The Boehner problem

As the debacle of Obamacare becomes more apparent, I’m amazed at the Republican’s inability to fully capitalize on it.

In particular, why is no one driving home the message that the President shutdown the government rather than delay the rollout when he should have known that the website and the whole program was not ready to go?

His numerous exemptions, deferrals, and changes should be evidence that the Republicans were right. But who in congress is saying that?

Why the relative silence about the corrupt crony capitalism aspects of Obama’s unilateral changes to the program?

Thomas Sowell got at part of the problem during the shutdown:

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats’ intransigence and walked on away.

We are in the midst of a national crisis, immediately affecting millions of Americans and potentially affecting the kind of country this will become if Obamacare goes into effect and yet, with multiple television network cameras focused on Speaker Boehner as he emerged from the White House, he couldn’t be bothered to prepare a statement that would help clarify a confused situation, full of fallacies and lies.

Boehner was not unique in having a blind spot when it comes to recognizing the importance of articulation and the need to put some serious time and effort into presenting your case in a way that people outside the Beltway would understand. On the contrary, he has been all too typical of Republican leaders in recent decades.

Okay. So Boehner isn’t the man to carry this message. That’s part of the problem.

The second part is this: Maybe Boehner doesn’t want to find women and men who can carry that message.

After all, that might make members of the House wonder if they would be better off with a leader who can lead in public and a Speaker who can carry the message to the voters.

The Speaker wouldn't be the first manager who was afraid to promote people with more ability.

One of Rumsfeld's Rules: "A's hire A's. B's hire C's."

Related:

How Reagan became Reagan: The Texas Earthquake of 1976