Well, maybe not technically, but it’s still one thing you can glean from this October 16th Politico article. In an article otherwise describing how royally screwed up the Obamacare rollout has been, you can find this juicy tidbit buried several paragraphs in:
Facing such intense opposition from congressional Republicans, the administration was in a bunker mentality as it built the enrollment system, one former administration official said. Officials feared that if they called on outsiders to help with the technical details of how to run a commerce website, those companies could be subpoenaed by Hill Republicans, the former aide said. So the task fell to trusted campaign tech experts.
What would they be hiding that would necessitate them relying on their cronies instead of outside experts?
But it doesn’t stop there.
You can pair this article with an article from Buzzfeed (!) from yesterday. For a time, apparently, one firm that helped develop the healthcare.gov website removed a page taking credit for its job:
Visit the website of Michigan-based design firm Teal Media today and you’d never know designers there helped create HealthCare.gov, the troubled online portal for Obamacare.
Just a few days ago, the site looked very different. Teal Media’s homepagefeatured its work on Obamacare prominently, placing a link to the firm’s work on one of the most well-known websites in America front and center. Now that link, as well as the page devoted to Teal’s work on HealthCare.gov, have been removed.
I added “for a time” because said page has been restored now. Maybe its disappearance was only by accident, or maybe they put it back up because of an article like this. Either way, that’s not the most important thing you can learn from this piece. Actually, it corroborates what Politico noted:
Teal Media is led by a prominent former member of President Obama’s celebrated digital campaign team, Jessica Teal. She was Design Manager for Obama’s 2008 campaign, a job that, according to her LinkedIn profile, put her in charge of “the official campaign website and microsites, web/email-based fundraising campaigns, state and constituency literature, large-scale signage and event materials, and special projects.”
Teal’s firm lists many prominent clients in Democratic politics and the government, including the Democratic National Committee, EMILY’s List, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. Teal Media’s role in the design of HealthCare.gov was heralded when the firm signed on.
So, if you’re Darrell Issa, everything’s coming up Milhous[e]. Richard Milhous, that is.
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