We’ve read and discussed some of the most offensive appearances of Barrycades over the last week, from the World War II memorial to the virtual barricade on the Amber Alert website. What has been the most effective Barrycade for the White House? The shutdown itself, which has rescued Barack Obama from the full brunt of the failures in the ObamaCare exchanges.  Nate Beeler put it perfectly in yesterday’s editorial cartoon at the Columbus Dispatch:

A quick check on Nexis today supports Beeler’s argument.  A search for insurance exchanges health among all major newspapers for today turns up only thirteen articles — and only six inside the US.  That includes the Miami Herald’s update for readers that 141 plans are accessible in the Miami-Dade exchange, which was item 4 of five local news items.  USA Today reports on the ability of employer-covered workers to seek better options in the exchanges.  The Philadelphia Daily News only has an editorial on Tom Corbett’s faux pas last week on same-sex marriage.

In comparison, the search term government shutdown finds 164 articles in major newspapers today, mostly in the US.  The Washington Post has twenty articles today referencing the shutdown, and the New York Times eleven.

None of the exchange articles give a mention to the ongoing debacle of the ObamaCare exchanges, after the federal exchange spent all weekend offline.  No one seems interested in reporting on the massive failure in the greatest expansion of government control in at least a generation, thanks to the distraction of the temporary impasse in spending.  The longer the shutdown goes, the longer the media can focus on it rather than the ObamaCare meltdown.

Small wonder Barack Obama and Harry Reid refuse to negotiate.