Massively embarrassing glitches in the ObamaCare website are making it awfully tough for the uninsured to obtain coverage, which they'll need to do by March 31, 2014, to avoid paying the individual mandate's penalty.

Given that dilemma, several Democrats have called for an extension of the enrollment period in order to give people more time to get insurance while the administration fixes the many, many problems with HealthCare.gov. After all, it wouldn't be fair for the administration to penalize people for not having something (insurance) that the administration's own bungling prevented them from being able to easily obtain.

Many observers have argued that the fact that Democrats are now openly critiquing the law is a sign that the steadfast unity that saw the party through the government shutdown has already begun to split wide open.

"The great Democratic unity of 2013 held for five-and-a-half days," Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote at Politico. Now, "Democrats have scattered," he added, "raising the question of whether the president will be able to preserve any of the new cohesion he inspired earlier in the month, or whether the rift is going to widen again."

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley A. Strassel likewise argued that "Democrats spent their first post-shutdown week caving in every way, shape, and form."

It's true that this has not been a good week for Democrats. But some of these predictions and pronouncements seem premature.

Democrats have indeed asked the administration to punt the individual mandate's penalty. Ten Democratic senators signed a letter drafted by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) urging the White House to "consider extending open enrollment beyond the current end date of March 31, 2014."

The administration has already capitulated, giving Americans an extra six weeks to obtain coverage without incurring a penalty. Previously, people would have had to enroll by mid-February to ensure they'd have coverage by the deadline. Now, they can enroll all the way up to the end of March.

While the Shaheen letter doesn't suggest a specific date for enrollment to end, the underlying argument — that Americans be given more time to enroll — is the same one endorsed by the White House.

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has called for a one-year delay of the mandate — but he's alone on the Democratic side in favoring such a concretely lengthy delay. That one Democrat has peeled off — a senator most notable for shooting a Democratic cap and trade bill in a campaign ad, no less — is not exactly a clear sign the party bulwark is crumbling to dust.

Instead, argues the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, Democrats calling for a short-term delay are either "engaging in a bit of garden variety political positioning, or are genuinely suggesting ways of making it more likely the law will work if problems do continue."

"That doesn't constitute running from either the law's overall design or its overarching goals," Sargent said.

A one-year delay of the mandate could be severely detrimental to the overall health of the law, resulting in an estimated 11 million fewer Americans getting coverage, and potentially causing premiums to spike in states that opted not to build their own exchange websites. A more targeted delay, on the other hand, would address a problem even the administration is worried about without threatening to undercut the entire law.

The White House can neutralize much of this intra-party unrest by fixing the site quickly. If that doesn't happen, and problems drag on longer than expected, then you could then start to see true Democratic defections. But that hasn't happened yet.