The idea that telephone enrollment in Obamacare was a suitable substitute for a seriously flawed website was always stupid. But when President Obama gave out the toll free number for Obamacare enrollment this morning, the lack of preparation was glaringly obvious. Ben Shapiro of Breitbart writes:

There was only one problem: the Obamcare toll-free phone number was overloaded and immediately crashed. According to Lou Dubois of NBC News, "Call centers now appear overloaded due to volume. 'Please call back.'" Dubois wasn't the only one reporting the new glitches. Annie Lowrey of The New York Times added, "For the record, just called 1-800-318-2596, got a busy signal." Kasie Hunt of NBC News: "Just called the number. They said there's too high call volume and call back on the weekend. 'We're sorry for the inconvenience. Goodbye.'"

Just who are the phone operators so quickly hired? ACORN members? There have already been serious issues with a lack of vetting of "Obamacare navigators." Would you trust your sensitive personal information to a stranger on the other end of a phone call who was hired in a rush?

The probability of transcription errors is sky high, with people verbally communicating large amounts of data and others writing it down. And why should we expect the phone operators to have any more success than consumers in signing up people?

President Obama has dug himself a hole, and instead of climbing out by suspending Obamacare as Ted Cruz tried to get him to do, instead he seems to have brought an excavator into the hole with him.