Jonathan Chait thinks so. He’s got a post up at New York Magazine with the provocative title “Obamacare Repeal Might Have Just Died Tonight.” His reasoning is based in part on the narrow margin of the Senate’s Republican majority. It’s currently 52-48, and if they suffer the loss of three of their votes for the reconciliation bill they want to use to repeal Obamacare they’ll be below 50 and it won’t pass. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Tom Cotton of Arkansas are all making noises that unless there’s a replacement at hand it would be irresponsible to repeal it.

Even more promising, five Senators introduced an amendment to the budget resolution to delay its implementation for a month.

“This amendment will ensure that we move forward with a smart, responsible plan to replace the law as quickly as possible,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) in a statement announcing the measure. He was joined by Bob Corker (R-TN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Cassidy (R-LA.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in introducing the proposal.

Even more startling to my mind, there’s movement in this direction in the House too, and from the far-right edges:

After a meeting Monday evening at Tortilla Coast, a restaurant near the Capitol, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said that there was an “overwhelming consensus” among the group of conservative hardliners that they’d like to see more specifics about the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare before voting on the budget resolution

I am not getting my hopes too high here, but if rationality suddenly appears in members of that party it would be a welcome change. If enough of them get cold feet about throwing 20 million people out of health insurance with no plan to help them get more that’s a good sign.