While Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was present in the Rose Garden when Barack Obama took what he portrayed as something of a victory lap regarding the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, today, not only was the beleaguered Sebelius not present at the podium, Obama didn’t even see fit to mention her once in his 18-plus minute address.
What’s unclear is if that was because Sebelius is generally associated with some of the new law’s biggest problems, including a recent outage, or if, as some might expect, Obama doesn’t much like to share the spotlight when attempting to take credit for perceived positive developments.
It was Vice President Joe Biden at Obama’s side in the Rose Garden, not Sebelius. And although Obama did thank Minority Leader Pelosi and members of Congress, Sebelius didn’t even warrant a mention by the President.
Obama did allude to additional challenges ahead and acknowledged the Healthcare.gov website being down just as the deadline approached. Keeping some distance between him and HHS Secretary Sebelius could indicate that, if someone needs to take a fall for more bad headlines aorund his so called signature legislation, her head may be poised for the chopping black. Whatever the case, it certainly didn’t figure prominently into his Rose Garden address.