Microsoft Exec to the Rescue of ObamaCare: Are You Joking?

The Obama Administration has hired a retired Microsoft executive to oversee the reconstruction of the ObamaCare website? Why Microsoft? Couldn’t they do better than Microsoft? Even the Obama Administration now admits the HealthCare.gov web site is a disaster. The Administration refused to allow computer experts in designing large demand websites, such as Amazon, Apple, EBay, Google, or HP to design the software platform. Instead it turned to a Canadian Company, CGI, which had previously failed in Ontario. The unveiling was a pure, unmitigated disaster. The Administration then asked a proven trouble shooter with managerial skills, Jeffrey Zients, to set it straight. The site is in better shape, presumably able to handle 50,000 inquiries at a time with only a 10% failure rate. That is apparently how the Obama Administration defines success. Zients wishes to move on. The President has now appointed Kirk DelBene to replace him. DelBene is a retired Microsoft executive, highly touted for running the Office Division. He offered to work for free at least through June. A maxim of the legal profession is that you get what you pay for. Does that apply to Microsoft? Why Microsoft? Microsoft has a proven track record, even after extensive beta testing, of producing clunkers. Bob? Vista? OS2? Windows 8? Windows CE? Windows ME? Bing? Zune? Tablet? It will be a perfect fit for ObamaCare. Microsoft: an expert in computer crashes. Microsoft: an expert in vaporwear – overpromising and underperforming. Microsoft: proficient in updating updates to dysfunctional programs of its making Microsoft, whose near monopoly allows it to overcome a series of failures, is now to bail out a proven failure not of its own making. Bill Gates quipped at a Comdex Expo that if “GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25,000 cars that would be getting 1,000 miles to the gallon.” GM responded: If GM developed technology like Microsoft, our cars will have the following characteristics: “1) For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day. 2) Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. 3) Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no apparent reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 4) Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine. 5) Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only 5% of the roads. 6) The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “General Protection fault” warning light. 7) The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying. 8) Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed ahold of the radio antenna. 9) Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. 10) You’re have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off. Why DelBene? He headed the Office Division at Microsoft, and thus can presumably manage thousands of software engineers at a time. The caveat is that he did not create Office, but took it over after a couple of decades of monopolistic success and profits. That is far different than the abysmal failure of ObamaCare. Why DelBene? Is it a coincidence in this overly political Administration that his wife is a Democratic Congresswoman from Washington?