"Pence then is neither Trump nor entirely his own person." Chris, this is a generous understatement.
As an adopted Hoosier, I arrived in Indiana during St. Pence's term as governor. He proved to be a lead-from-behind kind of pol, only "leading" on policy wants from his cringeworthy aChristian supporters sanitized of Jesus's tenets. He never proved during his one term as governor and as Veep to be his own person.
Case in point:
He and Mother were vociferous in favor of Indiana's extremely controversial "Religious Freedom Restoration Act"— drafted by the Republican-dominated Indiana legislature and championed by Pence at the behest of his religious supporters.
The act immediately touched off a strong online campaign against it as well as a series of protests at the Statehouse.
High-profile Indiana businesses, such as Salesforce.com and Angie's List with thousands of employees, spoke out about rethinking expansion plans in the state, or potentially leaving. A number of slated conventions were scraped. The Act cost the economy millions of dollars in convention revenue and potentially thousands of jobs.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," at that time, Pence declined over and over again to answer the question of whether the law made it legal to discriminate.
The firestorm of opposition that followed in the state and across the country included past Indiana Republican and Democratic governors, university presidents of the state, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports figures, civil rights leaders, many (true) Christian church leaders, and prominent celebrities forced spineless Mike's hand.
A bill was drafted and overwhelmingly passed by the legislature to provide protections for LGBT customers, employees, and tenants. Mother Pence saw the handwriting on the wall and told her husband to sign it. Only anti-Jesus Christian groups and other extremely right-wing religious zealots opposed the bill that became law.
In 2016, with Mannequin Mike losing a reelection run for by double digits to a virtually unknown Democrat, a lifeline was thrown to him when Trump (seeing the malleability of Pence) offered the probable loser the role as Veep.
Considering that Pence never had a drafted piece of legislation get out committee, much less voted on during his 10 years in the House prior to being governor, it is no wonder that he has so little support in his bid for the ReTrumplican't nomination because of original policy ideas.
On a tangential note: I wonder how anyone with the brains to acquire the wealth to donate to his campaign would waste their money doing so.
Maybe Pence just has nothing better to do. Don’t know if it’s true, but I remember hearing that Trump saved him from political oblivion because he was going to lose the governor’s race.
If the rightwing zealots in Indiana didn’t want him, I don’t see what chance he has in primaries or a general election of any kind.
I’m very happy he didn’t get hanged. OTOH, I’ll gladly watch his continuing humiliation of himself. Because apparently 4 years of groveling wasn’t enough for him. That’s a strange form of Christianity he practices.
I, too, follow Amanda Carpenter and find her to be spot on. She worked for Ted Cruz and yet, the Ted Cruz of yesteryear and not the Ted Cruz after 2016. At any rate, I have heard the same thing about Pence and Indiana, he was going to lose. He was always groveling to Trump and remember something allegedly from Karen Pence. Karen Pence said that she and her husband were not cut from the same cloth as Trump & Melanie, either by appearance, status & morals. Karen Pence was horrified about the Access Hollywood tape. However, Pence accepted the offer of Veep and started graveling. For being a Christian, it stunned me that he would accept the Veep spot. To me, he appears to be somewhat of a milquetoast. There is nothing appealing about him as a 2024 candidate that will propel him to a front runner. He now carries much of the baggage from the Trump years. Yes, he did his job on January 6h, but a saint he is not. It was his job for God’s sake. Anyone that wants to run for the 2024 GOP nomination needs to be able to stand up to Trump, get in the ring and fight. I can’t see Pence doing that at all. He needs to be on record, in peoples faces to tell voters the truth. Yeah right.
Carpenter is exactly right. No one--including Ron DeSantis--has gone after Trump on Fox/OANN/Newsmax, etc., or "to his face". They're all terrified of him. Cowards, every single one of them.
Do you think there may be any plausibility to the idea that Pence might be intending to kamikaze himself without himself intending to actually win? Obviously one speech in a no television cameras event in a media cozy event does not a strategy make. But will be curious to see if this is where he’s going.
re: Mannequin Mike
"Pence then is neither Trump nor entirely his own person." Chris, this is a generous understatement.
As an adopted Hoosier, I arrived in Indiana during St. Pence's term as governor. He proved to be a lead-from-behind kind of pol, only "leading" on policy wants from his cringeworthy aChristian supporters sanitized of Jesus's tenets. He never proved during his one term as governor and as Veep to be his own person.
Case in point:
He and Mother were vociferous in favor of Indiana's extremely controversial "Religious Freedom Restoration Act"— drafted by the Republican-dominated Indiana legislature and championed by Pence at the behest of his religious supporters.
The act immediately touched off a strong online campaign against it as well as a series of protests at the Statehouse.
High-profile Indiana businesses, such as Salesforce.com and Angie's List with thousands of employees, spoke out about rethinking expansion plans in the state, or potentially leaving. A number of slated conventions were scraped. The Act cost the economy millions of dollars in convention revenue and potentially thousands of jobs.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," at that time, Pence declined over and over again to answer the question of whether the law made it legal to discriminate.
The firestorm of opposition that followed in the state and across the country included past Indiana Republican and Democratic governors, university presidents of the state, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports figures, civil rights leaders, many (true) Christian church leaders, and prominent celebrities forced spineless Mike's hand.
A bill was drafted and overwhelmingly passed by the legislature to provide protections for LGBT customers, employees, and tenants. Mother Pence saw the handwriting on the wall and told her husband to sign it. Only anti-Jesus Christian groups and other extremely right-wing religious zealots opposed the bill that became law.
In 2016, with Mannequin Mike losing a reelection run for by double digits to a virtually unknown Democrat, a lifeline was thrown to him when Trump (seeing the malleability of Pence) offered the probable loser the role as Veep.
Considering that Pence never had a drafted piece of legislation get out committee, much less voted on during his 10 years in the House prior to being governor, it is no wonder that he has so little support in his bid for the ReTrumplican't nomination because of original policy ideas.
On a tangential note: I wonder how anyone with the brains to acquire the wealth to donate to his campaign would waste their money doing so.
God bless Amanda Carpenter.
Maybe Pence just has nothing better to do. Don’t know if it’s true, but I remember hearing that Trump saved him from political oblivion because he was going to lose the governor’s race.
If the rightwing zealots in Indiana didn’t want him, I don’t see what chance he has in primaries or a general election of any kind.
I’m very happy he didn’t get hanged. OTOH, I’ll gladly watch his continuing humiliation of himself. Because apparently 4 years of groveling wasn’t enough for him. That’s a strange form of Christianity he practices.
Pence's rhetoric would mean more if he didn't spend four+ years being a total ball licker.
I, too, follow Amanda Carpenter and find her to be spot on. She worked for Ted Cruz and yet, the Ted Cruz of yesteryear and not the Ted Cruz after 2016. At any rate, I have heard the same thing about Pence and Indiana, he was going to lose. He was always groveling to Trump and remember something allegedly from Karen Pence. Karen Pence said that she and her husband were not cut from the same cloth as Trump & Melanie, either by appearance, status & morals. Karen Pence was horrified about the Access Hollywood tape. However, Pence accepted the offer of Veep and started graveling. For being a Christian, it stunned me that he would accept the Veep spot. To me, he appears to be somewhat of a milquetoast. There is nothing appealing about him as a 2024 candidate that will propel him to a front runner. He now carries much of the baggage from the Trump years. Yes, he did his job on January 6h, but a saint he is not. It was his job for God’s sake. Anyone that wants to run for the 2024 GOP nomination needs to be able to stand up to Trump, get in the ring and fight. I can’t see Pence doing that at all. He needs to be on record, in peoples faces to tell voters the truth. Yeah right.
Carpenter is exactly right. No one--including Ron DeSantis--has gone after Trump on Fox/OANN/Newsmax, etc., or "to his face". They're all terrified of him. Cowards, every single one of them.
Love this analysis Chris...a kamikaze contributing to the cause!
Do you think there may be any plausibility to the idea that Pence might be intending to kamikaze himself without himself intending to actually win? Obviously one speech in a no television cameras event in a media cozy event does not a strategy make. But will be curious to see if this is where he’s going.