SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:44 P.M. ET: 

RYAN ADVANCES – From The New York Times:   A strong majority of anti-establishment conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus voted on Wednesday night to support Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin for House speaker, assuring that he will have the votes to secure the post next week and averting a leadership crisis for Republicans.  Mr. Ryan indicated that he was prepared to seize the gavel and try to bring unity to his party, which has been riven over how House leaders exert authority over members. That fight had become so bitter that it forced the resignation of Speaker John A. Boehner and derailed the candidacy of the majority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, to replace him.  “I’m grateful for the support of a supermajority of the House Freedom Caucus,” Mr. Ryan said in a statement, referring to the two-thirds vote he received.  Nobody gets everything in politics.  Uniting the party, even if it means some painful compromises, is absolutely essential as we enter a presidential election year.  We must win.  We must win.  We must win.

BIDEN'S SLYNESS – He announced he isn't running for president, but is that the whole story?  From Financial Times:  The sting for Mrs Clinton is that he did not endorse her candidacy. Moreover, he made thinly disguised swipes at her brand of “divisive” politics that spoke of Republicans as “enemies” — a line taken from one of Mrs Clinton’s debate answers. He also vowed to speak his mind “clearly and forcefully” in the coming months. In so doing, he put Mrs Clinton on notice that she would have to earn his support.  Yeah, people are noticing Joe's coolness toward Hillary.  Face it:  If the FBI probe into Clinton goes nuclear, and Clinton is brought down, Joe is waiting in the wings to take her place, without having alienated her base by campaigning against her.

ABC GOES SOFT ON BEN – From Newsbusters:   What’s going on here? Good Morning America, somehow, aired a shockingly positive portrayal of Ben Carson on Wednesday, promoting the Republican as “amazing” and having a “resume like no other candidate.” This is quite a change from ABC’s previous attacks on Carson.  Lara Spencer introduced a “closer look" at the man who “went from being called a dummy in grade school to becoming one of the world's most respected neurosurgeons.” Reporter David Wright enthused, “He has a resume like no other candidate and that's just the start of it. Dr. Carson is full of surprises.”  Maybe they just see him as the alternative to Donald Trump.  Or maybe ABC just got some rare common sense,

JEB IN TROUBLE – From Bloomberg:   A month of extensive New Hampshire advertising on Jeb Bush's behalf has failed to boost his support and likely Republican primary voters there view him as inferior to frontrunner Donald Trump on most key attributes.  A new Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm New Hampshire Poll also shows Bush's favorability rating among the state's Republican primary voters has dropped to its lowest level—57 percent—since the survey was first taken almost a year ago.  In the horse race, the former Florida governor has seen his overall support drop to 10 percent, from 11 percent in May. That puts him in third place, behind Trump at 24 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 17 percent, despite an advertising push by the pro-Bush Right to Rise super political action committee that has dominated the state's television screens for the past four weeks.  He was a fine governor of Florida, but the Bush name is hurting him in a Republican electorate looking for anti-establishment faces.  It's too bad, because a lot of good candidates are being bypassed.

October 21, 2015