My view is he saw the writing on the wall. If he stayed on as speaker he would be remembered as the man who lead the house Republicans to the biggest upset election in US history. That the majority are going to force through their agenda one way or the other. That their agenda will be so staggeringly unpopular as to insure the upset that I’ve already mentioned. That the Pope telling him to give way is just a handy excuse for him to save face. It’ll be a tough year, but all of the US will know what returning this group of idiots to Congress will mean.