You might think it is Paul Ryan, but you would be wrong. Ryan doesn’t suffer from overweening personal ambition; he only cares about his odious ideological agenda. Most of it is going to become law whether he remains Speaker or not.
No, in spite of holding his Senate seat, the real loser was Marco Rubio, who, of all of the 2016 also-rans, was best positioned to be the GOP candidate in 2020. Unlike Ryan, he desperately wants to be President. Now he’s third in line, and his next best chance will come at the end of what is likely to be a deeply unpopular Republican administration.
Am I shedding any tears for him? Alas, no. On the other hand, this time he will actually have to keep his promise and spend all six boring years in the Senate, so my state will actually have two functioning Senators.