ObamaCare architect is really sorry you noticed his 'stupidity of the American voter' comment

By now, you've seen Jonathan Gruber's 2013 assertion that ObamaCare only passed thanks to lies, trickery, and what he called "the stupidity of the American voter." But, until last night, you hadn't heard him try to weasel his way out of the claim.

Megyn Kelly apparently wanted to have Gruber as a guest so he could explain himself, but obviously, the ObamaCare architect wanted none of that. When he turned the offer down, everyone wondered: who would step in? Who would ask the hard hitting questions that America wants answered? Sadly, it seems the answer is "no one." Gruber wisely chose to speak with someone who would lob only softballs: MSNBC's boy-reporter Ronan Farrow. Farrow (also known as Superman's pal Ronan Farrow and Maybe-Sinatra's-Son Ronan Farrow) sat down with Mr. Gruber last night, and allowed the professor a chance to give a "nuanced" explanation of his comments. The interview began with a long, rambling preamble, before the host asked Gruber the salient question:

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Our friend Megan Kelly over at Fox and others have railed against Gruber's comments in the last 24 hours but is there a "there" to the controversy? And what does it reveal about the obstacles Obamacare now faces? Joining me now is the man at the heart of that controversy, Jonathan Gruber. Thank you so much professor Gruber for taking the time. So, first of all, you haven't taken the time to publicly comment on this so far. Do you stand by the comments in that video?

Gruber replied:

Um, the comments in the video were made at an academic conference. I was speaking off the cuff and I basically spoke inappropriately. ...and I regret having made those comments.

What an "academic conference" has to do with anything is a mystery. Basically Gruber "regrets" making the "off the cuff" comments, but he doesn't seem to suggest that they were wrong. In fact, just moments later, he doubled down. Farrow compliments Gruber by claiming that the point he was trying to make was "quite nuanced"

This is something that we have seen going back actually to the Clinton and Bush presidencies. Which is that public policy that involves spending is typically less politically palatable than policy that involves doing things through the tax code. It would have made more sense to do ObamaCare the way we did in Massachusetts which would be to just actually give people money. Toss out the cost of their health insurance. That was politically infeasible, and so instead it was done through the tax code and that was the only point I was making.

In other words, the version of the bill they wanted would never fly. So, they came up with a new version that was just as unlikely to pass. It was an expensive boondoggle that no one wanted. It was (and is) deeply unpopular. Instead of admitting that, Gruber prefers to call it "politically unfeasible." So - in Gruber's own words - they wrote the bill "in a tortured way" to ensure that the CBO would let it slide. Then they counted on the "stupidity of the American voter" to guarantee passage. Gruber's weak-sauce explanation does nothing to contradict his initial claim. In fact, it explains that the initial claim was the truth, and he meant exactly what we all assumed he meant. The American people are idiots, the Obama administration knew what was best for them, and Democrats decided to lie in order to ram the ACA disaster through Congress. What Gruber is really telling Farrow is that, in retrospect, he wishes he hadn't said this in public, on film. He regrets "having made those comments" not because he doesn't believe them, but because they exposed the truth of his convictions and have come back to haunt him.