AP linked to this story yesterday, but it’s sufficiently glorious to merit a stand-alone post:
Some supporters who tried to log in to hear President Obama defend his embattled health care law on Monday night were unable to hear him because the website of the group behind the call, Organizing for Action, failed to work for them. The website problems were an inconvenient moment for a president who has spent the last six weeks trying to explain the failure of HealthCare.gov, the online marketplace for Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “I want to cut through the noise and talk with you directly about where we’re headed in the fight for change,” Mr. Obama had said in one of many emails sent to supporters over the past several days. The emails urged supporters to log onto an Organizing for Action website at 8:15 p.m. to listen to the president’s remarks. Mr. Obama told those who could hear that there had been “a lot of misinformation” about his health care plan and noted that nearly a half-million people had signed up for Medicaid or for new insurance despite the problems with the health care website.
By all means, Mr. President, please debunk all that nasty “misinformation” floatin’ around out there — and be sure talk about how much you still believe. Words are magic:
“I am confident that by the end of this month, it’s going to be functioning for the vast majority of folks,” Mr. Obama said. “Despite all the noise out there, despite all the criticism, despite all the setbacks, I’ve never lost faith in our ability to get this done.”
Inspiring! Such a shame that the American people haven’t kept the faith along with him. And it’s too bad that so many of his biggest sycophants were unable to hear his soothing assurances due to technical difficulties. Where’s the sound, yo?
Many people who logged in said they could not hear anything, with the website reporting “connection failure” over and over again. It was unclear how many people could listen to the call. An official with the group gave a New York Times reporter, who also could not hear anything on the website, a telephone number to call and listen in. At the same time, a chat board on the website began filling up with messages:
“I can’t hear any audio?”
“Is everyone getting the ‘reconnecting’ message?”
“I did refresh twice — still no sound.”
“WHERES THE SOUND YO?”
One supporter pleaded, “Don’t tell me there are troubles with this live event like there were with the Obamacare website!!!!”
One wonders how Republicans managed to obstruct and subvert an OFA phone call. Chop chop, Barack. There’s more misinformation to combat than ever.
