This might be a huge setback… or it might be a sign of just how good he really is underneath all that bluster.
He could have gone ahead and worked tirelessly, expended huge amounts of political capital to try and get the bill through. And maybe succeeded, or maybe just failed anyway.
But maybe he realised that it’s actually a terrible piece of legislation, exactly the sort of thing people like Ted Cruz would support, would disproportionately harm his low/middle income supporters, and is exactly the reason he was selected as the republican candidate instead.
How do you catch a falling knife?
Now he’s punted this into the long grass. In his own sweet time he can come up with something that does what he said on the campaign stump (perhaps just a tarted-up ObamaCare, who knows), build support for it among moderate Republicans and Democrats, and come out smelling of roses.
Sure it generates bad headlines *now*, but that doesn’t matter. What’s important is the final *outcome*, and the election in 4 years time.
So it might be that this health care saga is a sign that Chewkw’s bet is actually pretty safe.