Kathleen Sebelius's Going Away Press Conference Marred by Missing Page Glitch, Jokes

Critics of Department of Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a field day when, about halfway through her comments at Friday's press conference, she announced that "unfortunately, a page is missing" from her speech.

Critics of Department of Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a field day when, about halfway through her comments at Friday's press conference, she announced that "unfortunately, a page is missing" from her speech. President Obama held a press conference Friday to formally announce her resignation and nominate Syvlia Burwell as her replacement. The president thanked her for her five years of "extraordinary service," but when it was Sebelius's turn to speak, a page was missing. The glitch that launched a thousand jokes.

Jim Geraghty of the National Review and several others went for the Obamacare delays joke, tweeting "President Obama unilaterally extends the deadline for Sebelius to read from that missing page." The Weekly Standard went with "Final Glitch on Way Out Door," though Sebelius will be around until May, according to Mark Knoller at CBS. Igor Volsky at Think Progress went for a cultural reference. "CNN shifts from missing plane to Sebelius missing page coverage," he tweeted, though that might not actually be a joke.

But if we want to continue the missing page glitch analogy, Sebelius wasn't particularly thrown off by the missing page. She noted that her father — a GOP congressman, a fact that contributed to her bipartisan appeal at one point — was part of the Congress that passed programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Head Start. "It seems like a wonderful passing of the baton," she said. Obamacare, she says, in an extension of that legacy, and Obama agrees. The GOP is painting her departure as an admission of failure, the president argued that Sebelius will "go down in history" for running the department when it expanded health coverage. Still, Obama added, Sebelius has "got bumps. I've got bumps, bruises." This is one more to add to the list.