"Doing big things is hard," Paul Ryan said in a press conference after the defeat of the House bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Really?  Then maybe the speaker of the House – and 2012 candidate for the second highest job in the land – should have picked an easier career.

As speaker, it was his job to round up the necessary votes to keep the commitments made by his majority for the past seven years since the Affordable Care Act became law.  Perhaps the highest priority of the Republicans has been to repeal what many see as a disaster that creates more problems than it solves, hurts small businesses, and is the embodiment of government meddling in private medicine.  Premiums this year, for example, are set to rise 22 percent, and insurers are opting out of the exchanges in droves.

Crafting a bill that fixes those problems without creating worse ones isn't easy, but the Republican Congress had plenty of time to work on it and build support among conservative policymakers and think-tanks.  Instead, Ryan and his cronies seemed to be intent on passing the repeal bill on the anniversary of Obamacare's passage, March 23, placing symbolism above substance.  He believed he could tear down in 17 legislative days what it took the Obama administration 187 to enact.

Thus, they staked their own credibility and that of a president inexperienced in the legislative process on a risky, shortsighted gambit.

With a president happy to sign the bill, the speaker spent weeks negotiating, but in the end, he couldn't deliver the 216 votes necessary.  It's like the old metaphor of a dog chasing a truck, left to wonder what happens once he catches it.

The president and the speaker, two of the most powerful men in the nation, found themselves hopelessly on the sidelines of an internal war between factions in the Republican Congress, who possessed the numbers to pass the bill without a single opposition Democrat vote.

Now everyone is talking about building coalitions and working with the Democrats to craft a bill that has broader appeal rather than rush into truck-chasing mode so quickly as to be ineffective.  That should have been the approach in the first place.

Trump thanked Ryan, saying "he worked very, very hard."  His aides are publicly insisting he blames not the speaker, but rather the members who refused to act and the Democrats who are married to Obamacare even as it "explodes."

But privately, the president must be seething at a man who was extremely late supporting the Trump-Pence ticket even as Trump blazed his way through the primaries.  President Trump invited his millions of Twitter followers to listen as Judge Jeanine Pirro, on her Fox TV show, ripped Ryan and called for him to be replaced.

"A president who made repeal of Obamacare a hallmark used valuable political capital," said Pirro.  To Ryan, she said, "You came in with your swagger and experience and sold him a bill of goods which ends up a complete and total failure, and you allow our president, in his first 100 days, to come out of the box like that?"

Defending the president's credibility, Pirro added, "No one expected a businessman to completely understand the nuances, the complicated ins and outs of Washington and its legislative process.  How would he know on what individuals he could rely?"

She's right.  Ryan should have been the president's front man on that battlefield, and if he can't lead, he should get out of the way.

Although he's been in the House since 1999 and has been speaker for a year and a half, Ryan didn't seem to understand the political fault lines in his own party, and the reaction to a bill that left much of the Obamacare regulations and mandates in place.

Instead, in the words of an Investor's Business Daily editorial:

Ryan's team repeatedly fumbled the ball, diluted the free-market message they should have been selling, and lost sight of the point of repealing ObamaCare – which was to bring down insurance costs for millions of middle class families who've seen their premiums skyrocket and their benefits diminish under ObamaCare.

While there is no overt sign of a movement to replace Ryan, allies of the president are blaming Ryan, some quietly and some openly.

"I think Paul Ryan did a major disservice to President Trump.  I think the president was extremely courageous in taking on health care and trusted others to come through with a program he could sign off on," Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, told Bloomberg News.

This debacle sets a bad precedent in the early weeks of the administration in which not only are members of Congress unafraid of the president's threats to campaign against them in the midterms, but the opposition is more emboldened to take a tough stand, as are the Freedom Caucus hardliners emboldened to exploit the divides and make more and more demands.

Not a great position for the president to be in as he shifts his focus to the perhaps more difficult fight over tax reform.

Wrote Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, "If the administration can't repeal Obamacare ... how will it possibly accomplish something complicated like tax reform?"

There are plenty of excuses to be made.  Appearing on Meet the Press, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said this was a lesson that "Washington is a lot more broken than President Trump thought it was[.] ... This place is a lot more rotten than we thought it was."

If that's true, the president and his allies in Congress need to start making it less rotten by putting leaders in place with the ability to skillfully expend political capital for maximum impact, to be able to horse-trade with members to get legislation passed quickly, even bringing in Democrats when possible, and do more than just talk about an agenda that makes America great again.

Paul Ryan doesn't seem to be up to the task.  It remains to be seen if the president has a viable alternative to Ryan as a potential speaker, but if one emerges, I for one won't be sorry to see the switch.

Eli Verschleiser is a financier, real estate developer, and investor in commercial real estate.  In his philanthropy, Mr. Verschleiser is on the board of trustees for the American Jewish Congress, co-founder of Magenu.org, and president for OurPlace, a non-profit organization that provides support, shelter, and counseling for troubled Jewish youths.  Mr. Verschleiser is a frequent commentator on political and social service matters.  http://eli-verschleiser.com  Twitter: @E_Verschleiser