This definitely could have gone worse for the Speaker of the House. Like really, really bad, like significantly way worse than it did. People don’t see it from the other side when they say “well, that could have gone better,” to remark after something went badly. Giving equal consideration to how a certain media appearance of whatever other situation could have actually gone worse is important because it both puts things in perspective and allows one to retain a sense of optimism even if it’s one that exists only relative to a hypothetically more catastrophically bad outcome.