Political suicide is failing to repeal Obamacare, not forcing the GOP to do it. The former failure will result in immense losses in Congress in 2018.
Passing skinny repeal would have:
1. Immediately caused a pullout of payers in the exchanges, and
2. Triggered a “crisis” that would need massive subsidies to keep the exchanges afloat.
The Repubs would have essentially taken away healthcare from millions and then passed a tremendous spending bill to “save Obamacare.”
How do you think THAT would have played in 2018?
If anything, McCain likely did them a favor here.
They can still run on a half-assed, “We need more Senators and Reps to repeal Obamacare” platform.