To his last point, I just wonder how hard his support really is... it's clear that he's not well liked by a lot of his colleagues, but there is a bit of a "vote yes, hope no" thing going on.
And him losing 10+ votes after the PR onslaught yesterday may create a permission structure to jump off the ship (ie. "He can't get to 217, we need to find someone else who can")
I think he probably gets there in the end at this point. But after the way yesterday went, I'm a bit surprised that the picture isn't clearer at the moment