Potty Training Derailed!

My first instinct was to stick with it and keep pushing gently but I'm seriously considering putting potty training on the back burner.

He's just not ready.

Davin is mature enough to do many things. He helps out with the laundry, he has some small chores, and is big enough to understand that if he wants a new toy he has to work for it. So why can he just not quite grasp this? He tells me when he's already gone potty and he strives for the positive reinforcement and the excitement of sitting on the potty.
Do we keep trying or am I going to scar my child for life? Honestly I could go either way but I would like to finish what we started. I'm having another baby which means 2+ more years of diapers so I'm not striving for the incentive of a diaper free life here.
We have not had 1 successful elimination in the potty from today and last night.
He has actually only ever done it once ever; it was like an out of control mini fire hose hit my bathroom.

I don't want to be one of those moms who has a 4 and a half year old who passed the ready stage and is now into manipulative and icky. Where is that fine line between "he'll do it when he's ready" and "my kid missed the boat and now I have to figure out what to do before he starts school"?

Most importantly I think here is the burning question in my mind: Why in centuries of childraising has no one gotten it right and written a book or why do parents not get some soft of a manual from God on the day their kids are born? Maybe parents would think they knew better than any manual or book and we would all be in the same place regardless.

Back to the topic at hand.... To potty train or not to potty train? That is the question.

I think I'm going to back off and keep playing Elmo's Potty Time. Either way I'm taking a leap but I think I know my son well enough to know when to re-introduce this and I know he's close but perhaps not quite ready.