Republicans regroup around push for Ryan

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Can Paul Ryan be convinced to run for House speaker?

Reaction from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel

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Buzz Cut:
• Republicans regroup around push for Ryan
• The Edge: Fiorina debate surge over
• Cruz goes negative on Trump
• Hillary’s break with Obama paves way for Biden
• Blinded by science

REPUBLICANS REGROUP AROUND PUSH FOR RYAN
With Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropping out as favored suitor and the vote for speaker nominee jilted, Republicans are scrambling today to come up with Plan B. Scenarios ranging from Speaker John Boehner staying on indefinitely to a band aid caretaker speaker are being floated. But the ultimate solution, finding a candidate who can unite the divided conference and actually win a majority on the House floor is coalescing around Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Ryan, who chairs the Ways and Means committee, has said he doesn’t want the job but there were signs late Thursday he may be changing his tune. Though the wave to draft the Wisconsin congressman is growing, the fractures in the party that broke open Thursday still yawn: Some conservative lawmakers coming out of a Republican conference meeting this morning tell Fox News that a Ryan candidacy will get pushback. Can you say ‘Déjà vu?’

[On deck - USA Today has a list of some potential candidates for speaker of the House]  

Sorry John, the golf course is closed - WSJ: “Boehner said Thursday he would stay until his replacement is selected. That may not happen soon….Some conservative members said they don’t want Mr. Boehner to stay for long….[other] Republicans see a possible silver lining in the leadership turmoil: It could make it more likely that Mr. Boehner could wrap up deals with the White House to pass the debt limit increase, set spending caps and tie up other loose legislative ends.”

Fox News Sunday: Former speaker joins Mr. Sunday - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joins Mr. Sunday this week on what’s shaping up to be a more complex speaker race. “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace” airs at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET on Fox News. Check local listings for air times in your area.

THE EDGE: FIORINA DEBATE SURGE IS OVER
Nearly everyone experienced a net loss in this week’s scores from The Edge, but Carly Fiorina lost the most ground. Her overall tally still puts her ahead of Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul, but the team at New Analytics found sharp downward trend in the results. Increasingly negative media coverage since her debate performance may have started to leave its mark.

The rest of the field is holding steady for now, but in varying degrees. Ben Carson and Jeb Bush hang on to their fairly high trend with less than a point lost from last week’s score. This is especially good news for Bush who has continued to falter in polling, and overall campaign performance. Also holding steady is Marco Rubio, but with a slightly higher net loss than Carson and Bush.

And, while Donald Trump tops everyone for an overall score, he experienced one of the higher losses from the previous week, along with Ted Cruz. Trump and Cruz take the spots behind Fiorina in highest net losses.

Remember, The Edge, a one-of-a-kind measurement from the New Analytics Company that “scrubs” television, radio, print, internet and social media to gauge positive and negative attention for the 2016 candidates. It is not a public opinion survey, but the team at New Analytics believes that The Edge provides a way to show changes in the race before polls can reflect them. The data are compiled into a single score and provided exclusively to Fox News First. 

Here’s this week’s final scores with gains/losses from last week in brackets:

Donald Trump, 25.04 [-1.01]; Ben Carson, 13.14 [-0.82]; Jeb Bush, 10.15 [-0.95]; Marco Rubio, 7.57 [-0.98]; Carly Fiorina, 5.46 [-2.78]; Ted Cruz, 6.71 [-1.26]; Mike Huckabee, 4.83 [-0.68]; John Kasich, 3.90 [+0.11]; Rand Paul, 3.80 [-0.79]; Chris Christie, 3.86 [-0.54]

And Dems too - And ahead of next week’s debate, New Analytics scored the Democrats for the first time. Hillary Clinton had an overwhelmingly higher score, as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders came within a few points of each other. Here are their overall scores: 

Hillary Clinton [42.67]; Joe Biden [22.19]; Bernie Sanders [21.95]; Martin O'Malley [8.93]; Jim Webb [3.84]

Cruz tops Rubio in fundraising, both fall short to Carson - WSJ: “Texas Sen. Ted Cruz raised $12.2 million in the third quarter, pushing him into the upper ranks of Republican presidential hopefuls who have announced details of their fundraising hauls so far. Mr. Cruz’s quarterly take nearly matched his second-quarter number and brings his total raised this year to more than $26 million. It also spotlights his fundraising prowess, as he raised about twice as much cash in the period as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio…Aides to Mr. Rubio announced at a donor retreat in Las Vegas that he had raised $6 million in the quarter, according to a person present. The receipts bring Mr. Rubio’s total haul to $18 million for the campaign, and he has about $11 million in the bank. Both men trail Ben Carson, who raised $20 million in the latest period and leads the GOP pack of candidates who have disclosed their figures.”

Cruz goes negative on Trump for the first time - In an interview with WABC, Sen. Ted Cruz said he doesn’t think Donald Trump will be the nominee. Cruz said, “I don’t believe Donald is going to be the nominee and I think, in time, the lion’s share of his supporters end up with us.”

Trump says Bergdahl should have been ‘executed’ - AP: “Republican presidential front-runnerDonald Trump said Thursday that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan. ‘We’re tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who’s a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed,’ Trump said to cheers at a rowdy rally inside a packed Las Vegas theater at the casino-hotel Treasure Island. ‘Thirty years ago,’ Trump added, ‘he would have been shot.’”

#mediabuzz: Trump Talk - Host Howard Kurtz heads to Trump Tower for a sit-down for Donald Trump. And the panel previews the first Democratic debate. Watch “#mediabuzz” Sunday at 11 a.m. ET, with a second airing at 5 p.m. ET.

Power Play: GOP brokered convention? - Every four years politicos talk about the possibility of abrokered convention and it never happens, but with the staggering amount of candidates determined to see this through the bitter end, this election could be it. WaPo’s Aaron Blake and Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper talk with Chris Stirewalt on what they think.  WATCH HERE.

Jeb opposes parts of Voting Rights Act reauthorization - Time: “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushcame out against reauthorizing parts of the Voting Rights Act that were thrown out by the Supreme Court in 2013, suggesting he would resist bipartisan calls to reinstate a key component of the law if he became president. In an interview with TIME Thursday, Bush said that states like Georgia no longer need to be covered by the now-defunct pre-clearance provisions, while controversial moves such as Alabama’s recent closure of motor vehicle offices are covered by the provisions that remain intact.”

Carson: armed Jews would have ‘greatly diminished’ Hilter’s murders - WaPo: “Ben Carson said Thursday that Adolf Hitler’s mass murder of Jews ‘would have been greatly diminished’ if German citizens had not been disarmed by the Nazi regime. The comment, which came during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, was similar to arguments Carson made following last week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., in which he defended the Second Amendment and suggested that the victims should have fought the gunman.”

[Watch Fox: Chief Political Correspondent Campaign Carl Cameron reports from Nashua, New Hampshire]

WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE…
The Atlantic brings us a short film of luthier, Alex Bishop, who shows the beauty of crafting wood into complicated musical instruments. In the film, Bishop builds a guitar and describes how each instrument varies in sound depending on the wood, and how he is always surprised with each instrument he makes. Ultimately, though, it’s the basic nature of the work that brings him joy as he says, “You don’t have the obstacles of everyday life in the 21st century, and that’s a liberating experience.”

Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM

POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
Obama Job Approval: Approve – 45.3 percent//Disapprove – 49.9 percent
Directions of Country: Right Direction – 26.3 percent//Wrong Track – 63.5 percent

HILLARY’S BREAK WITH OBAMA PAVES WAY FOR BIDEN
WSJ: “Hillary Clinton’s moves to distance herself from key White House policies creates an opening, if he wants one, for Vice President Joe Biden to run for president as the natural heir to the Obama legacy. Mrs. Clinton broke with President Barack Obama this week over a major Pacific free-trade deal many Democrats oppose, just as the White House begins selling the accord to Congress. That decision followed harsh comments from the former secretary of state about Mr. Obama’s handling of immigration, a rebuke of his Syria policy and her call for repealing a key piece of his health-care law. Those moves bought her political points with some important Democratic constituencies in the nomination contest, particularly labor unions.”

Power Play: Hillary tries offense on emails - As her email scandal continues to unfold, Hillary Clinton looks to paint Republicans as political poison purveyors. Will her offense play better than months of defense ahead of a Democratic debate and a possible Biden run? WaPo’s Aaron Blake and Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper talk with Chris Stirewalt. WATCH HERE.

Biden aides reportedly met with DNC - USA Today: “Aides for Vice President Joe Biden met with staff from the Democratic National Committee this week, a sign that he may jump into the 2016 presidential race, according to the New Yorker. The Biden aides were briefed on ‘arcane but crucial rules’ that the vice president would need to understand should he run, the magazine reported.”

Draft Biden PAC won’t air emotional ad - The Hill: “A super-PAC trying to draw Vice President Biden into the 2016 presidential race says it will not air an ad that discusses the death of his first wife and daughter…‘The vice president appreciates that they are trying to help,’ a source close to the vice president said. ‘But he has seen the ad and thinks the ad treads on sacred ground and hopes they don’t run it.’”

Bernie opposes Obama FDA nominee - WaPo: “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to announce his opposition Friday to President Obama’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, citing questions about Dr. Robert M. Califf’s commitment to lowering pharmaceutical prices. Sanders, who is mounting a surprisingly strong bid for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton, told The Washington Post that he spoke last week with Califf and came away unconvinced that he is the right person for the job of commissioner.”

BLINDED BY SCIENCE
UPI: “[A] health and safety audit, conducted by the National Science Foundation's Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Antarctic Program, said ‘alcohol consumption’ on the part of scientists has been found to cause ‘unpredictable behavior’ and ‘has led to fights, indecent exposure, and employees arriving to work under the influence.’ The program bans alcohol consumption in work areas and during work hours, but one human resources manager interviewed for the report said about 75 percent of disciplinary actions taken by her company were related to alcohol use. The auditors wrote they observed numerous violations in work areas -- including one researcher who was brewing his own beer in violation of the rules.”

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.