Trump: "Let Obamacare Fail. I'm not going to own it."

Trump is a master of branding others as failures.   

"We're not going to own it.  I'm not going to own it.  I can tell you, the Republicans are not going to own it."

Democrats should beware.  It is not an idle threat.   

A great error made by Trump's opponents has been to underestimate how successfully he can brand them.   Ted Cruz spent millions of dollars promoting the brand TrusTED.  Cruz the reliable, trusted conservative.   It was for naught.  Trump put a far bigger and mentally stickier idea out there: Lyin' Ted.

There is a graveyard of opponents labeled by Trump: Little Marco, Low Energy Bush, Crooked Hillary.

Note that Trump has already created two elements of the "blame Democrats" message.  He refers to Obamacare as the catastrophic failure, as if that is an acknowledged fact, not an assertion, and he has already put out there the idea that the ACA is collapsing on its own.   "Let Obamacare fail."

Without the subsidies, the ACA dies.

In fact there is a reason the GOP majorities could not repeal or replace Obamacare, and that is because the ACA (i.e. Obamacare) actually has such important and popular elements that the legislators cannot repeal them.  Too many constituents would be hurt.  Their rural hospitals would go bankrupt.  Repeal of the ACA would be a disaster, but repeal of "Obamacare" was a political necessity.  The uncertainty over the ACA's future is a key element that is proactively unsettling the insurance markets.   The ACA is not collapsing on its own, but it can be pushed into collapse.

Liberal view: Trump won't get away with passing blame.

Democrats seem to be counting on the idea that Trump and Republicans will own the political fallout if insurance markets fail.   Democrats should watch out.  Shifting blame is what Trump is best at.   Historically Democrats have been bad at fighting back.

Democrats have their own media bubble.  They overestimate the power of "informed opinion."  Michael Dukakis let George H W Bush define him as a commie.  He couldn't believe anyone took that seriously, and no doubt few people in the wide circle of his friends and confidants did so.  John Kerry let himself get swift boated.  He couldn't believe that reasonable people would believe the accusation that his surviving getting shot at and sprayed with shrapnel, winning a medal for bravery and two purple hearts, made him a coward.  He criticized the criticism but thought the accusation was beneath contempt; the accusation stuck.

Trying to sell the Democratic position

Democrats will need to make the clear, angry argument that the GOP is killing the ACA, that Trump is an active agent, not a passive one, and that if insurance markets fail it is because the GOP is doing something.   Democrats have an advantage here.   People are ready to blame the GOP Congress.   Congress is held in low esteem and Trump is loyal to himself, not the GOP.  Trump blamed Congress.   Even Sean Hannity is now openly blaming the weaklings and prima donnas of the GOP.

Democrats have the disadvantage, though, of having no one, clear spokesman and the second disadvantage that the leaders of the party are members of the House and Senate themselves.  The complete failure of the Congress makes defining the health care system as Trumpcare difficult.   Republicans can be blamed for failure, not for a bad plan that is on the table because the law on the table is the ACA.

Protect Trump, not the GOP.

Can Democrats accuse the GOP and Trump with as much vigor and clarity as Trump is already condemning Obamacare?   It is their task, but it will be a difficult one.  Trump has the big head start and he is the center of all political discourse.  Trump has every advantage.

The best hope for Democrats is Trump's own personality.  He will save himself, not the GOP.  "I'm not going to own it" was his first thought.   "Republicans aren't going to own it" was his second.  Trump already positioned himself as ready to sign something.  

The failure wasn't his.  It was the Republicans in the Senate.  The Democrats can work with that.