Outside the Beltway

Observations on Pence

Fading into the background is the appropriate end to his dance with MAGA.

Steven L. Taylor
17

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Here’s what I think is true about Mike Pence.

  1. He was, at best, a third-stringer during his heyday. Meaning, that while he was kind of in the political big leagues, he was never going to start. (As a governor he was legitimately in the conversation about being a presidential candidate, but just barely).
  2. By the time Trump made him his running mate, Pence was on the cusp of being out of the league, so to speak.
  3. Pence thought, cynically in my view, that despite Trump’s obvious foibles, Pence could use Trump as a means of getting back in the game, with the specific hope that if Trump did win, it would position Pence to be the next in line.
  4. Pence was a fool, or a major hypocrite (or both, really) to think that he could use Trump as a vehicle for his brand of Christian conservativism.
  5. Pence did do the right thing in regard to Trump’s attempt to steal the election, and that will put him in the history books (for various reasons, good and bad), but he emerged from all of that both tainted overall because he hitched his wagon to Trump in the first place, and damaged himself with his own supporters because he went against Trump.
  6. Ergo: Pence is back where he started, indeed worse off, than when he decided to get on the Trump train in the first place.

All of this is to say that while, yes, Pence’s inability to gain traction may well be a comment on the contemporary GOP, I think that is not the main lesson. Pence is where Pence is because he’s Pence (although, maybe ironically since he was Trump’s veep, there is less room in the party for Pence now than there was in 2016). I cannot imagine a scenario in which he did much better in the polls than he did during the 2024 preseason. Even if Trump had served two terms and Pence was veep for eight years, he would have, in my view, emerged from that poorly. He is not dynamic and he has no ability to appeal to MAGA. Further, no signficant anti-MAGA faction was ever going to rally around Vice President MAGA.

While I do find it a massive positive that Pence did not go along with the plan to try and steal the election, I find him mostly to be a pathetic individual who rather clearly was willing, despite his overt religiosity, to make deep compromises for the sake of power.

That his current campaign ended with a whimper is wholly appropriate and should surprise no one.

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17 responses to “Observations on Pence”

  1. al Ameda Avatar
    al Ameda

    I agree with you completely.

    Pretty sure that Trump now realizes that he had the wrong ‘Mike’ as his Vice President.

    3
  2. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    Given that the only significant anti-MAGA faction is called “Democrats,” that no one is going to rally around Vice President MAGA isn’t really that surprising.

    5
  3. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    Pence was a fool, or a major hypocrite (or both, really) to think that he could use Trump as a vehicle

    He had a lot of company. But ETTD.

    I hold Mike Dense generally in contempt for obvious reasons. I temper my respect for his insistence on certifying the election as had he gone the other way he almost certainly would have ended up the face of a failed coup and first in line for prosecution. But I give him credit for refusing to leave the Capitol, fearing he might be spirited away and Chuck Grassley or someone else would take over and send it back to the states. His fear the Secret Service might hold him somewhere is another data point for suspicion of RW elements in the SS.

    ETA – This just bounced with a message, “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down”. ?? Try, try, again.

  4. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    I agree with your analysis. It would be Shakespearean if Pence were less of a nitwit.

    Pence, poor dumb bastard, actually thought conservative Christians wanted an actual Christian, however flawed. But right-wing Christians gave up on waiting for Jesus to do all the smiting they desperately crave and instead swore allegiance to the least Christian man ever to occupy the Oval because he fed their many hatreds.

    17
  5. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    Pence thought, cynically in my view, that despite Trump’s obvious foibles, Pence could use Trump (for his own agenda)

    He had a lot of company. But ETTD.

    I hold Pence in general contempt for all the obvious reasons. I don’t give him a lot of respect for certifying on J6. Had he done the opposite, he would likely have been the face of a failed coup and first in line for prosecution. But I do respect him for insisting on staying at the Capitol, fearing the Secret Service might spirit him away and Grassley or somebody would pick up the gavel and send it back to selected states. That strikes me as requiring some insight, integrity, and courage. His fear the SS might interfere with his duty is another data point for concern there’s a RW element in the SS.

    8
  6. DK Avatar
    DK

    …a massive positive that Pence did not go along with the plan to try and steal the election, I find him mostly to be a pathetic individual who rather clearly was willing, despite his overt religiosity, to make deep compromises for the sake of power.

    A perfectly pity and succinct summation of Mike Pence.

    6
  7. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    I recall that when the “grab-’em-by-the-pussy” tape was released, Pence said he was bailing as Trump’s running mate. Who talked him back into the race, and how?

    2
  8. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    I agree with the main thrust* of this post. So allow me push** on something that came up a few times here but that is part of a larger pattern that I find so frustrating (and that keeps me from engaging more often — not just here). Please note, my ire is not directed at you, as I find you to be an exceedingly fair and patient host/interlocutor.

    3. Pence thought…

    4. Pence was a fool, or a major hypocrite (or both, really) to think…

    Has Pence actually articulated these “thoughts” of his? To be sure, these are not unreasonable assumptions based on his actual behavior. And they are not the only thoughts that could be driving said behavior.

    Or are these the “thoughts” that seem ever so popular on internet forums — the thoughts that we observers are aware of but that are obscure to the so-called “thinking” agent? Asymmetric insight and all that.

    More generally, I’m wondering what is the added value of mind-reading here? Is it not enough to describe (and judge) his behavior?

    *That one’s for Mother.
    **That too.

    2
  9. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    @Mimai: Steven led off with this:

    Here’s what I think is true about Mike Pence.

    Steven can speak for himself, but I read this as meaning, “if we were to speculate about Pence’s capabilities and motivations, here’s my guesses…”

    2
  10. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    @MarkedMan:
    Ah, I totally missed that. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Steven, I apologize for misreading you.

    3
  11. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    There’s a reason his nickname in some Capitol Hill circles when he was in Congress was “Mike Dense.” He’s not bright and he’s not interesting. Dropping out of the race is, by far, the smartest political move he’s made. Ever.

    3
  12. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Mimai: No worries. And you are correct, that I do not know what Pence thought/thinks. I think my inferences are reasonable, but who knows for sure?

  13. Ken_L Avatar
    Ken_L

    The internet can be very cruel sometimes.

    7 reasons Mike Pence will be the GOP nominee in 2016
    By Matthew Yglesias

    https://www.vox.com/2014/9/30/6846367/mike-pence-2016

    There was also some talk of him running in 2011, I guess because he would be a casting director’s first choice to play a president on TV.

  14. Lounsbury Avatar
    Lounsbury

    this should be agenda one domestically for you, the grid

  15. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    Mike Pence has the most ungainly real hair on the planet. It’s cut and coifed so weirdly it looks like a Halloween costume fake hair plastic appliance, but it’s his real hair.

    Why one would choose to present themselves to the public with that haircut eludes me.

    The Trump/Pence ticket was the strangest hair combination in my life, and, in my mind, in American history.

  16. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    The Trump/Pence ticket was the strangest hair combination in my life, and, in my mind, in American history.

    For historical competition, I would refer you, de stijl, to Andrew Johnson and either of his VPs.

    1
  17. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    @Joe:

    The Trump combover is S tier in today’s world and comprehension. It is freakishly odd by modern, contemporary standards.

    R voters are 100% totally okay that their “leader” has a clown’s hair-do and wears
    orange make-up. I appreciate their open mindedness and tolerance to such a bizarrely presenting person.

    Johnson’s hairdo was de regueir for the time. In today’s reckoning they look odd, but, back in the day, the coif was mainstream.

    Devo used to have proto Mike Pence plastic hair in their late 70s / early 80s videos. Brunette, not oddly uniform white like Pence, and it looked exactly like Pences’s current ‘do. It’s uncanny.

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