" And even after the primaries, Trump’s grip on the nomination was weak enough that a serious effort to defeat him might have been successful."   
Trump won the primaries very handily.  Should have Ryan worked to defeat Trump over Hillary?   There are more of these interesting sentences within Mr. Bernstein's essay that imply feelings rather than factual. 
 I have noticed most of the opinion writers are now leaning to negate Ryan and not as much anti-Trump.  I believe most published Opinion headline writers in the DW are more anti rather than positive.