Ex-Vice President Michael Pence: A Blog Response

Heartland Now blogger Michael Leppert recently predicted that Vice President Michael Pence will become President at some point. He claims he has been contacted by national media outlets wanting to learn more about Pence. He believes they are preparing for Pence to assume the Presidency in case President Donald Trump isn't able to finish his time in public office, or that he'll run for President himself either in 2020 or 2024.

I'm reading the tea leaves a little bit differently, but I'd like to address the issue of Mike Pence first.

Like Michael, I don't think Mike Pence has giving me a passing thought.  And I've been critical of his political sensibilities, and his style of governing. I've never met Pence before. But I've listened to his old talk radio show, and seen him in media appearances as a candidate and as a public official. And except for his god awful RFRA-era interview with George Stephanopoulos, Pence is someone who sticks to his talking points and sticks to them well. You won't get him to budge from them, and you aren't going to get some policy-wonk answers.

I also don't believe Mike Pence is a deep, intellectual conservative. Disagree with them all you want, and I often do, but I think there is some intelligent thought going on when people like House Speaker Paul Ryan, or the late William Buckley, talk about their conservative believes. I don't think that is the case with Mike Pence. I think he's someone who speaks very carefully, and doesn't want to be boxed in. His style of governing as Governor of Indiana reflected that, with Republican legislators sometimes (privately) griping that they were getting little guidance as to what then-Governor Pence wanted.

Despite spending over a decade in Washington DC as a member of the House of Representatives, he was never known as a wonk. None of the bills he introduced into the House became law, and he was much more focused on climbing the leadership ladder.

Now, let's address Mike Pence as Vice President.

First, are we sure he's still alive? Has anyone seen Mike?

Anyway, the beginning of the year, mainstream media wrote a lot of reports talking about the "outsized" "hat" in Trump's White House. The general consensus was that incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Mike Pence were seen as the establishment figures, and had a large role in shaping much of the staff that would do the day-to-day work of the White House. Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who also lead the role as head of the communications department, was part of that group. And even though Attorney General Jeff Sessions was an early endorser of Donald Trump, his status as a former US Senator certainly put him in the Republican establishment camp too.

Nowadays, Spicer and Priebus are gone. Sessions is getting shit-talked by Trump on Twitter. And with establishment figures quickly winding down within the Trump White House, I think it is only a matter of time before that ire is directed to Pence.

Now technically, Vice President of the United States is an elected position. Pence can't be fired. He could be impeached, or be pressured to resign. Since President Trump can't fire him (and doesn't like firing people anyway), I think we'll be seeing the later at some point.

When? Who knows. Mike Pence has done a good job of making himself look good and keeping his head down. But at some point, he'll try to make a name for himself and it could backfire. And if it does, expect Trump to send up a tweet-storm and then we'll have the first Vice Presidential vacancy since the 1970s.

The Party of Donald Trump and Mike Pence

Image: Via ABC News.

BREAKING: As I was composing this blog post, Brian Howey is reporting that no offer has been made and that all the VP contenders have been summoned to meet with Donald Trump. Governor Pence must withdraw his name by noon Friday, or his name will stay on the ballot unless he dies or moves out of state. Pence faces the decision to stay in the Veepstakes and withdraw his name from the Governor's race, or stay in the Governor's race and withdraw from the Veepstakes.

Original post below:

Pretty much the entire political world knows by now that presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his Vice Presidential nominee. However, some of the Trump Supporting Media (TSM) are saying a VP pick has not been finalized. It will be kind of hilarious if Trump has Mike Pence come all the way out to the North East only to be told "Hey Mike, can you get Newt's luggage for me?"

But I want to address what this actually means in terms of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and what this means for the Republican Party.

I know some #NeverTrump-ers read this blog. They're friends of mine, or we interact on social media. I think many of you have been in denial for a while now. When I told a fellow blogger who has largely been supportive of Governor Pence and critical of Donald Trump, he responded with:

• "It isn't official, is it?" (denial)
• and "waiting for the words out of Deadbeat Donald's mouth" (anger)

He knocked out two of the five stages of grief in the span of two minutes. He only has bargaining, depression, and acceptance to go. By the time you read these words, he might've gotten to all five stages.

Like it or not, the Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump. And Governor Pence doesn't just "fully support" Donald Trump. He believes in Donald Trump so much, that he is going to join Donald Trump as his running mate.

So now that we're here, let's talk about what the Republican Party has become by embracing Donald Trump.

The Republican Party has become a party where people are judged not by their accomplishments or their words, but by their skin color and heritage. Trump is being sued by former Trump University students, a scam barely disguised as a set of seminar course. The judge presiding over the rulings was born in East Chicago, Indiana. But Trump repeatedly told CNN's Jake Tapper that the judge is "Mexican" and that Trump can't get a fair trial in front of the judge because "we're building a wall between here and Mexico". Much of the TSM tried to rush out other allegations against the judge, but Trump didn't mention those in the initial interview.

The Republican Party has become a party where women are judged not by their accomplishments, but by their physical attributes. Among other quotes, Trump singled out former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in an interview saying "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?"





I'd go on further, but frankly, if I had to list every negative attribute of Trump, this blog post would never end.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the implications of Governor Pence leaving the 2012 election, and why it really shouldn't matter electorally, but it probably will.