WASHINGTON — President Obama delivered one of the greatest presidential apologies of all time.
Clearly lacking his normal confidence, the commander-in-chief repeatedly expressed remorse for the painful debut of his signature health plan in a rambling 50-minute press conference.
His anguish was on full display as he veered from macho cliché (“it’s on me”) to blunt confessions: “I was not informed directly” that the ObamaCare Web site wouldn’t work before the rollout.
His answers meandered, as he defended a new executive action that served as an acknowledgment of a significant miscalculation — that people would choose to flock to new health exchanges out of their own self-interest.
“It’s scary getting a cancellation notice,” Obama said, referring to the millions of Americans who were told their plans were being wiped out.
Among his most noteworthy admissions was that the episode poses a career risk to some of the same Democrats he cajoled into voting for the new health law.
It was a stark turnaround for the newly contrite Obama, whose mantra is that the politics will always “take care of itself.”
“I feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them,” Obama fretted.
“There is no doubt that our failure to roll out [ObamaCare] smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they’re running or not, because they stood up and supported this — this effort — through thick and thin.”
The guilt he evidenced might explain why he is throwing himself into a nationwide tour to raise cash for fellow Democrats.
The latest Fox News poll shows the GOP’s lead in congressional races at 43-40 percent — a complete turnaround from last month, when Democrats had a 45-37 percent lead attributable to the government shutdown.
Obama’s own numbers have tanked as well, while support for ObamaCare in the Gallup poll has dropped to 40-55.
Obama’s mea culpa has a purpose.
It’s meant to build public sympathy, and help put down a Democratic panic in the House and Senate, where lawmakers have floated legislative fixes that could protect their political hides — even if some of the solutions could undermine the law by raising premiums on the health exchanges and play into GOP arguments that the law won’t work.
One Democrat, Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.), said Thursday that Obama deserved to take it on the chin.
“Look where we are. It’s always been on him,” he said, adding that the botched rollout of ObamaCare would definitely haunt him in his own re-election race next year.
“It’s going to have a negative effect. Ads are being run against me now,” he said.
Senate Democrats and rank-and-file House members are on the hook for real-world consequences if people face premium spikes or can’t renew their policies.
Much as Democrats might be inclined to break with Obama out of frustration and let him shoulder all the blame, it’s too late for them to credibly run away from the ObamaCare that they pushed through Congress.
They can vote to change the law if they want, but unless the administration can make the clunky Web site work by Nov. 30, they’ll pay the price at the ballot box.
At one point in Obama’s performance, the floundering got so bad that Rory Cooper, an aide to Republican Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), tweeted: “On my way down to the White House to yell ‘last question’ . . . as a favor.”