OK, I just created an Obamacare account for myself (if I broke any laws, please, it was just investigative journalism). I went all the way through the process at healthcare.gov, stopping before the final step of actually applying (I don’t qualify, of course, because Princeton provides insurance), just to see how hard it was. And the answer is that it was no problem at all, with no delays.

I also used the information only feature to get a listing of plans in my area. Again, no problem. And healthcare.gov directs you to Kaiser for an estimate of subsidies and final cost.

Now, I know that this is only part of the story, and we’re still not getting clear answers on how well the 834 transmissions — which send the information to insurers — are working. But the visible parts of the process bear no resemblance to the horror stories of a few weeks ago.

Why did I carry out this little exercise? Well, I scanned the comments on today’s column and noticed a lot of people reporting having successfully enrolled in Obamacare — not at one of the well-functioning state exchanges, but at the supposedly disastrous healthcare.gov. Just anecdotes, I know — but anecdotes suggesting that the system is no longer the black hole of yore.

In short, it’s looking increasingly likely that the story from here on is going to be one of steadily better news — of growing enrollment in the federal as well as state exchanges, of people discovering either that their insurance has gotten better and cheaper or that they can afford insurance for the first time. Bit by bit these stories will percolate into the news media, replacing the sob stories about cancelled policies.

And I find myself wondering what Republicans will do. Or actually, not so much. As Martin Longman noted over the weekend, Obamacare already looks like one of those Republican obsessions — like Benghazi — where the party has convinced itself that there must be a pony winning issue hidden in there somewhere, and that if only it keeps flogging the thing, long after the public has moved on, it will eventually score big.

I’m not saying that the botched rollout is irrelevant: it has badly hurt Obama, and may do damage that lasts into the midterms. But the facts on the ground are changing, and my very strong guess is that the GOP will undo a lot of its gains by refusing to acknowledge that change.