(I am now a paid subscriber to the NY Times – while I disagree with them a lot, they at least still believe in real journalism and getting the facts right – so I plan to link to their stories)
https://youtu.be/B9aw95sXgz8
So Trump made it official today and will have the official coming out party on Saturday. I haven’t backed away from the idea that Trump will withdraw before November, voluntarily or otherwise. If that turns out to happen, we may well see President Pence in January. Who is he and what does he believe?
He is currently the governor of Indiana. Indiana is a moderately Conservative Midwest state. Indiana is a mostly white state, with the black population concentrated in the NW corner near Chicago. Those people are there primarily because of the Great Northern migration of the 1920s and Fords complex in South Chicago, and the steel mills in Gary.
Pence was raised as a Roman Catholic, but is now an evangelical born again Christian. As governor, he has fought against abortion and gay marriage and supports religious freedom (bakers refusing to bake gay wedding cakes, etc). He served in the House for 12 years and is part of the TEA party movement. His selection will likely please Cruz supporters.
He got a law degree and spent time doing radio on a small radio station. He described himself as Rush Limbaugh on decaf. His show was distributed on 18 stations in Indiana (this was long before SRGuide, so I have no familiarity with him as a radio host)
NY Times compares Trump and Pence
The one item I really like is Pence opposed Bush’s No Child Left Behind which accelerated the Federalization of Education. Pence did capitulate to expanding Medicaid in Indiana in line with Obamacare. He probably has a realistic plan on how to replace it. Pence oppose resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana and lost, but he is more favorable to immigration and free trade than Trump. I expect that over time, their views will diverge, more compatible to Pence’s views, since he has real world government experience.
So Pence is about as opposite to Hillary and the Democratic Party mainstream as a person could be. I noticed that the RNC rules committee made no pretense at diversity. There were no black people on the committee to appeal to blacks. 95% will vote for Hillary no matter what. Blacks under President Trump/Pence will reap what they sowed. Trump refused to visit the NAACP convention. The lines are drawn.
A while back, I said that if Cruz won the Republican nomination, I would likely vote for Hillary. While Cruz and Pence share a lot of the same views, I don’t sense Pense would be a bad choice. He doesn’t have the Texas swagger, he isn’t on a mission to dismantle the Republican Party. He is a thoughtful Midwesterner, not a bull in a China store. I look forward to hearing him speak at length.
There is a common thread in these videos. Pence is an ineffective speaker to a crowd. Trump has put both of them in a box by being dismissive of using a TelePrompTer. When working without one, his notes should be nothing but a bullet list of topics, not a verbatim script. 90% of the time he is looking at the paper to read the sanitized focus group screened words instead of making eye contact with the crowd and tailoring his words to the reaction of the crowd.