Absolutely. One vote short. Really?
It wasn’t one vote short. People are basing that on the count that was discussed in the run up to this. However, that does not account for the fact that the number of people present in the chamber today was less than expected.
The tally at the start of the session was 401 representatives, so that means Boehner needed 201 to get a majority. I believe in the final tally he actually got 205. Also note that there were several reps that were present for that 401 count, but who did not actually vote for speaker. Boehner was one of these, so if you factor that in, he actually had 206 votes or more.