And, in the short-term, it not only cost the GOP dearly, but it distracted the public from a still-stumblin', bumblin' exchange rollout – particularly at the federal level.

This battle's lost, but the war is far from over. There's plenty of time between now and the midterms, and the voting public has proven time and again how short their political memories are. And now that the daily headlines talking about the big bad Republicans shutting down the government and defaulting on the debt are going away, the media just might notice how badly the exchange enrollments are going. And that's a story that could very well drive voters next year since these technical problems aren't going away any time soon.

Speaking of which, anybody else see this piece we did that more or less revealed that the feds really don't have a backup plan if their network breaks down completely? I've sworn up and down for months that there's no way the president will delay the individual mandate. But if this system doesn't improve, he might not have a choice.

Now if only we could get Boehner, Cruz and McConnell together for a happy hour with a few brokers and me, we might be able to get on the same page…

But enough of the heavy news today. I've got parent-teacher conferences tonight, and I need to close on a lighter note.

So, I betcha didn't know it's Boss's Day – and, no, not Hugo's. Betcha also didn't know the little-known holiday, which we share with Canada and (oddly) Lithuania, is 65 years old this year. Crazy, huh? Anyway, we already ran a story on it, and I was (pleasantly) surprised at how many people like and respect their managers. It's encouraging, but the cynic in me wondered if the poll we reported on was conducted via email, and how many of those respondents filled it out at work.

Anyway, my challenge to you is to give your boss a shout-out today without looking like a suck up (I failed). Because nobody likes a brown noser…

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks again for all the great speaker submissions. I'm only sorry I won't be able to use them all. I hope to see you all in Colorado Springs, Colo. for the 2014 Benefits Selling Expo, anyway.

And if you haven't heard from me this week to tell you you're in, I will be in touch before the year's out to talk about other opportunities we have to work together. I'm looking forward to it.