5 Stories You'll Care About in Politics Next Week

Oct. 4, 2013 -- intro:These fights are the big ones. The showdowns that define Washington right now are animated by titanic clashes that pit competing visions for government against each other. Battles are being waged by people with memories of slights, real and imagined, by their adversaries, and people with complicated motivations. In some cases, the most important divisions are inside the minds of the lawmakers who have failed so miserably in showing the basic ability to make laws, to lead.

Here in shutdown city, the garbage is being collected, but things still stink. With that we present a special matchup edition of the stories your ABC News political team will be tracking in the week ahead:

quicklist:1title: JOHN BOEHNER VS. JOHN BOEHNER text: A simple fact: The shutdown could end this afternoon if House Speaker John Boehner -- who will be an exclusive guest on "This Week" Sunday -- allowed a vote on the same funding bill that's already passed the Senate. But there's an equally simple reason he won't do that: It would likely mark the last major leadership decision Boehner would be permitted to make. This fight was forced onto Boehner by the tea party wing in his conference, along with a small group of senators intent on dismantling Obamacare. In that sense, this entire exercise is one of getting House Republicans to the place Boehner has wanted to go all along. A House speaker who's always had a firm sense of how far he can push his colleagues is facing his biggest test. Boehner, moreover, still feels burned by his previous rounds of failed negotiations with the president. He may have to regain that trust before striking any kind of deal, but it's a deal that he wants.

quicklist:2title: BARACK OBAMA VS. BARACK OBAMA text: President Obama seems confident he has Republicans where he wants them. The question is becoming how long he wants to keep them there. Here's the bottom line: A growing number of Republicans realize they're losing this round. But white flags seldom, if ever, come to full mast in politics. Boehner and his colleagues are looking for ways out, with repeated demands for negotiations. Yet the White House position remains that no negotiations are possible until the government reopens, and that no negotiations are possible at all around the debt ceiling. Short of a coup against Boehner, it's hard to see how these crises end without at least a little give from the White House. That would require the president -- who finally has his base proud of him for holding firm -- letting Republicans walk off with something they can call a victory. And don't overlook the fact that the government that's been partially shut down is Obama's government: He needs to manage the shutdown, along with the brand-new insurance exchanges and their flawed Websites, all while finding a path out of endless confrontations.