A strong conservative couldn't get more than 40 votes.
Yes and look for Boehner to dust off another RINO to put forward in McCarthy’s place. My guess the conservatives will push Watson and then compromise on Chaffetz or someone like him.
Well, what was the purpose of the exercise, then? Seriously. To substitute one middle-of-the-road, squishy GOPe for another is foolish. It almost appears like the Freedom Caucus is surprised they finally ousted Boehner, and they hadn’t thought much about their game plan if they were successful. Any thoughts on someone who could realistically win and is better than Boehner?
Usually, this caucus vote would continue multiple times with various slates of contenders, as repeated voting draws out the consensus thinking of the body. If neither remaining candidate can get a majority, then new candidates will step up as factions combine and split with each iteration, until a consensus candidate emerges.
At least, that's how it used to be done before careerists took over and made every vote a scripted, pre-determined outcome that shred only to protect their own interests. Now, lame-duck Boehner is preventing House Republicans from caucusing to discover their mutually agreeable Speaker. Instead, Boehner is slinking back into the back room for more scripting.
-PJ