The second reason Ryan isn’t going anywhere as Speaker is because he’s the only one who can keep the Republican conference in anything that resembles a unified front.

People always point to how ineffective Ryan is at Speaker — and, honestly, I don’t think Ryan is great at it or think he’s particularly suited to it — but he led House Republicans through passing the first post-Obama health care bill earlier this year.

The American Health Care Act was not a good bill, but that’s not the point. Ryan cobbled together enough middle-of-the-road Republicans and House Freedom Caucus members, as well as some of the more progressive Republicans from the Tuesday Group, to get something passed.