Much is at stake for the House speaker and the Republican Party as he tries to persuade unruly GOP lawmakers to back his debt ceiling plan.As the debt ceiling standoff veers toward potential crisis, House Speaker John A. Boehner finds himself on a path that could end one of two ways: catapulting him and his party forward in the run-up to a presidential election, or imperiling his hold on the only position of power he ever wanted in Washington.