Republicans have unfairly jumped at the opportunity to criticize the Obama administration following recent problems with the implementation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

On Oct. 1, healthcare.gov — one of the landmark achievements of the legislation — went live as key provisions of the 2010 law went into effect.

But the launch of the website, which allows people to shop and apply for health insurance plans, has been met with issues.

According to an article published by The New York Times on Monday, the site has experienced “serious technical issues” that have prevented many from even accessing the online insurance portal.

The delays have put Republicans in the awkward position of both rooting for the failure of the law’s implementation and criticizing the Obama administration for not implementing it smoothly enough.

Some prominent Republicans, such as Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, have even called for the firing of Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“This launch has been a national embarrassment, but it’s just a symptom of much bigger problems. I believe President Obama ought to fire Kathleen Sebelius,” said Cuccinelli, according to a report on Slate.com.

It seems fairly contradictory to oppose Obamacare on its merits and focus efforts on repealing it and challenging it in federal court, then turn around and criticize those in charge of implementing it.

But that’s exactly what Republicans are doing.

The government shutdown debacle is done, and they failed to block health care reform from taking effect. Now, the right wing will turn its collective attention to identifying difficulties in its implementation and make noise about these imperfections.

When will the levels of criticism and complaining be enough for Republicans?

Sadly, it probably won’t be until they’ve recaptured the White House. And this doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon.

It’s time to cut the administration some slack. Health care reform features some sweeping changes, and glitches in putting its various provisions into practice are expected, especially when technology is involved.

Is it Sebelius or Obama’s fault that the website has problems? Absolutely not. Neither of them are computer programmers who are directly responsible for coding the site.

Moreover, the administration has been a bit preoccupied with the partial government shutdown that was manufactured by the same congressional Republicans who wanted so desperately to dismantle the law.

Now that the bureaucracy has been reopened and the fiscal crisis is — at least for now — finished, the executive branch can better focus its efforts on fixing the problems associated with the new health insurance website.

Whining about inevitable issues in implementing landmark legislation won’t help Republicans come next November.

Such tactics might have worked in 2010, but the American electorate is catching on.

According to a CNN poll released on Monday, 54 percent of Americans believe it’s bad for the country to have Republicans in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives. Only 38 percent of respondents believe a Republican House is good for the country.

These numbers stand in stark contrast to Obama’s approval rating, which has remained steady through the shutdown at around 44 percent.

The shutdown hurt Republicans politically, and these numbers have major implications for the outcome of the 2014 midterm elections, especially if the party cannot or will not change its tactics.

The president has assured us that the problems with healthcare.gov will be looked into and fixed. Hopefully the administration will roll out a fix soon.

Likewise, if Republicans want to have a politically successful 2014, it looks like they have a few issues of their own to address.

David Swenton is a senior political science and writing and rhetoric major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @DavidSwenton.

Published on October 23, 2013 at 2:20 am