PENCE RECEIVES PRAISE FOR RUNNING WITH A NON-CREDIBLE CANDIDATE

 

 

…Governor Mike Pence is asking everybody to vote for somebody that he cannot defend.

 

The Republican party has been infected with a cynicism that has produced a dismal presidential candidate called Trump.

 

I find it interesting that a credible conservative editorial writer has written the following about Indiana Governor, Mike Pence (R), and this was written after the Vice Presidential debate.  “So why should he be praised for running with a non-credible candidate whose comments are so objectionable that Pence had to deny they were ever said?”

 

It is true that the professional political analysts initially had said that Pence had won the vice presidential debate by the small margin of 48% to 42%.

 

But later, after everyone had a chance to really dig into the full 90 minute event, it became clear that both of the VP candidates had won, but in two different areas.

 

Pence won on style points as he continually stayed cool, didn’t interrupt as did Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA).  But when it came to substance, Kaine was the one being truthful and very substantive.  Instead of standing up for Trump, Pence just lied saying that Trump didn’t say what he has said, and that’s all on tape and in political ads.

 

After the VP debate, in a recent cable episode of Bloomberg’s “With All Due Respect”, a Trump surrogate had the gall to say that both Pence and Trump were “in sync” on Russia, Syria, Aleppo, and ISIS.  When comments by others on the show were offered that showed that was not the case, all the surrogate could say was that these counter explanations were all “taken out of context”.

 

The Indiana Governor rightfully got credit for maintaining his an appropriate calmness in Tuesday night’s debate.  In reality, what all the former qualified GOP primary candidates watching the debate saw, was a demonstration of what a credible, sane, middle-of-the-road Republican would have been able to do in a debate against Hillary Clinton.  Mike Pence only kind of “won” the debate by pretending he was running with a candidate who never said the  ridiculous things Trump always says.  But Pence never acknowledging Trump’s obnoxious positions on just about everything.

 

Never mind that Donald Trump regularly genuflects to Vladimir Putin and his critics call Trump a con man and a huckster.  But Pence is that much worse of a VP candidate for continuing to sell an unfit presidential candidate to the American people.  Most of today's conventional and respected Republicans say that’s the case.

 

I was very surprised that Senator Kaine didn’t bring up the long list of well-known Republicans that have publicly announced that they are either voting for Hillary, or not voting for Trump for president.  That would have been a real revelation to those viewers that haven't been paying attention to the campaigns.

 

But a major point was made by Senator Kaine when he said, “Six times tonight, I have said to Gov. Pence I can’t imagine how you can defend your running mate’s position on one issue after the next. And in all six cases, he’s refused to defend his running mate. … And yet he is asking everybody to vote for somebody that he cannot defend. And I just think that should be underlined.”

 

Pence should only be rewarded for his calm performance in support of a presidential candidate whose statements he could not defend and whose foreign policy he contradicts.

 

The reality of the VP debate night was made very clear the next day by of all places, on BuzzFeed online: They wrote: “By creating some space between himself and Trump, Pence positions himself better for a potential presidential run in 2020 if Trump loses. And his performance underscored the way he has, since being chosen as the running mate, run a kind of parallel campaign to Trump’s that has seemed at times like an unconnected effort.”

 

Early on after the debate, there were unsubstantiated reports that Trump was initially not happy with his running mate because Pence hadn’t defended Trump,  Also because he lied about whether Trump even said the things he did say.  But very quickly, when it was initially reported that Pence had won the debate, the word from the Trump campaign changed and everyone including Trump was behind Governor Pence.

 

The reality is that Trump had such a bad previous week, the campaign was starving for any positive news.  The surrogate on the “With All Due Respect” show actually said “Well, we are now winning in the polls.”  When he was shown that all the major polls showed Clinton gaining, even in Ohio, the surrogate listed off his three polls.  But these polls were then questioned as to whether they were even real polls.  A couple of the so called polls, no one had ever heard of.

 

The other reality is that there are those Republicans who have fared the worst in the Trump debacle of 2016,.  Those are the ones who have sacrificed their own moral compass to insist that Trump is fit to be the US president.  With the Trump campaign, we have all come to expect hearing from an unhinged Rudy Giuliani, a totally insincere Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R), and a number of other  knee-jerk responses from many elected Republican politicians.

 

We all have serious issues when a real “budget wonk” like House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) argues that Trump’s views on protectionism, mass deportation, and adding $5.3 Trillion to the national debt, that these are in line with Ryan’s views and are superior to Clinton’s plans.  Ryan is now willing to risk supporting a potential president who believes none of the things that Ryan does, and only for the sake of party solidarity. This is anything but having admirable qualities.

 

The most disingenuous part of the debate is when the deeply religious Pence actually insisted that he is proud to be running with Trump.

 

Pence’s former devotion to fiscal responsibility and a strong foreign policy does not seem all that appropriate today.  Especially when Pence is willing to work so hard to elect the most fiscally irresponsible commander in chief the GOP has ever nominated.

 

The real result of Pence’s performance in the debate speaks volumes.  It appears to imply that given the opportunity to possibly score big, will most GOP politicians just start telling lies?  Apparently, they will totally betray their values and principles thinking they will not suffer any dire consequences.  Pence and those that think this way , they should think again.

 

The Pence debate performance did not enhance his stature in the party for the 2020 presidency.  The lies he told about Donald Trump did convinced many in America of his lack of moral integrity.  Those Republican party members calling Pence the 2020 savior just displays their willingness to accept the infection of negativity inside the GOP.   That attitude is what eventually produced the dismal candidate called Trump.

 

The former "Party of Lincoln" just continues to slip further into a political abyss.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016