Son of Shutdown: Those Obama Rose Garden/Affordable Care Roll Out Photos

So the GOP missed the opportunity of the decade by trying to shut down the government rather than focusing on the epic disaster better known as (the) Obamacare (website rollout). Given punditry has replaced baseball as the national pastime, this conclusion has become “talking point gospel” since Boehner, Cruz and company called “uncle.” Since then, conventional media wisdom and some misplaced notion of balance (and supposed liberal panic) has apparently dictated that the Affordable Care Act’s stumble out of the gate equates to the GOP’s near-lethal, self-inflicted wound.

It’s interesting to consider the tone of the imagery from Obama’s combined kickoff and Obamacare reboot in the Rose Garden Monday in light of the toxicity in the air.

From the gesture of “hold on there,” to the seemingly emblematic dizziness of the pregnant woman (overcome, perhaps, with the miracle that she successfully enrolled), to the shot of the event in the weeds, to the frame of Sebilius, captured as murderous, and she and McDonough seemingly suicidal, the photos do their best to unnerve.

(photo 1: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images caption: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks about the error-plagued launch of the Affordable Care Act’s online enrollment website in the Rose Garden of the White House October 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. According to the White House, the president was joined by ‘consumers, small business owners, and pharmacists who have either benefitted from the health care law already or are helping consumers learn about what the law means for them and how they can get covered. ‘Despite the new health care law’s website problems, Obama urged Americans not to be deterred from registering for Obamacare because of the technological problems that have plagued its rollout.photo 2 -3: Mark Wilson/Getty Images caption 2 – 1st sentence: U.S. President Barack Obama holds onto Karmel Allison who has Type 1 Diabetes and felt light headed while he was delivering remarks about the error-plagued launch of the Affordable Care Act’s online enrollment website in the Rose Garden of the White House October 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. photos 4 – 5: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images caption: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough (L) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speak after President Barack Obama delivered a speech about the error-plagued launch of the Affordable Care Act’s online enrollment website in the Rose Garden of the White House October 21, 2013 in Washington, DC.