( CNN ) -- As the fallout from the botched launch of Affordable Care Act 's exchanges continues , it grows ever clearer that website glitches are only a small part of the problem with the cumbersome -- and increasingly unworkable -- law . One has to ask : Is President Barack Obama making this up as he goes ? It 's hard to imagine that the President and the team charged with implementing Obamacare could n't have foreseen the problems that have continually popped up . Yet , here we are , bringing in `` tech surges '' to examine the website problems , security experts to mitigate privacy concerns , insurance executives to `` brainstorm '' ways to actually insure people . And all the while the President has implied he was the last to know that storm clouds were on the immediate horizon . There are two possible scenarios here : . One , the President is lying , and quite effectively . If he knew that the website would n't be up to snuff , or that millions of Americans would not , in fact , be able to keep their insurance plans if they liked them , then he simply made a calculation that many politicians make : Lies are n't necessarily fatal . Except when they are . Just ask Richard `` I 'm not a crook '' Nixon , George `` Read my lips '' Bush , or George `` WMD '' Bush . Or two , Obama is hopelessly out of the loop . Whether it was the IRS scandal , the NSA spying program or these ACA collapses , no one in his immediate circle appears to have felt it necessary to inform the President of looming problems that he might have to answer for , let alone solve . If I were a Democrat like Rep. Charlie Rangel , D-New York , who recently told the New York Daily News , `` Saying you 're sorry does n't help me worth a damn at the polls , '' I might be hoping it 's the former . Politicians who lie are hardly exotic . Chicanery is often merely the price of successful political salesmanship . Incompetence , on the other hand , is far more damaging to the Democratic brand . Whereas the left and much of the narrative in the popular culture have already written Republicans off as impolitic and inept , liberals , on the other hand , assert their intellectual superiority and tout their `` willingness to govern '' and get things done as party mantra . Not only is the left smarter and more sophisticated , they insist , they 're also supposed to prove that government can solve problems . More pointedly , that big , unwieldy bureaucracies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the IRS can solve massive problems , like healthcare . Whether he was uninformed of or simply incurious about the potential failures , Obama 's lack of preparedness and competence in implementing his signature piece of legislation not only diminishes his credibility as a problem-solver , but it jeopardizes the faith in government that liberals rely on . When government looks hapless , private-sector innovators are empowered and emboldened . For liberals , that 's bad for business . Better they hope he was merely being dishonest . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of S.E . Cupp .
S.E . Cupp : Repeated snafus in health exchange rollouts make it clear Obama 's playing it by ear . Cupp : He 's either lying about not knowing , website not ready , or he 's incompetent . She says it would be better it 's politically survivable . Incompetence is more damaging . Cupp : Obama tout ability to make government solve problems . Botched government hurts their credibility .