Pence may be the best choice for Trump. This is not to say that he won't be vulnerable once we start vetting his record.
But he doesn't have the obvious baggage of Christie and Gingrich.
Most VP picks historically have not been well known-which is why I think Thomas Perez could be a great pick though he's not at all well known.
Pence for his part is at 8 percent favorable, 15 percent favorable.
He's the less Trumpian candidate for sure. His potential negative is that he's just very, very conservative-he did endorse Ted Cruz.
"Pence is somewhat unpopular among the people who can form an opinion about him, particularly compared with past vice-presidential nominees. His net favorability rating would be the worst of any vice-presidential selection since 1976 at the time of their selection. But the other reported finalists, Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich, are well known and disliked by the American public. In the Marist College poll, Christie had a favorable rating of 34 percent and an unfavorable rating of 50 percent. Gingrich clocked in at 33 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable. Both are disliked by at least half of voters. The vast majority of voters, by contrast, don’t have an opinion on Pence, so the Trump campaign would have more of an opportunity to fashion a positive image for him (of course, that cuts both ways — Hillary Clinton’s campaign would also try to define Pence)."
"Pence also is the most likely of Trump’s finalists to satisfy the conservative base. You can see this using three measures that I have used in the past to rate candidates’ ideology: DW-Nominate common-space scores (which are based on a candidate’s voting record in Congress), fundraising ratings(based on who donates to a candidate) and OnTheIssues scores (based on public statements made by the candidate). Pence scores a 50 or above on all three metrics (-100 is the most liberal, and 100 is the most conservative)."
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mike-pence-would-be-a-really-conservative-and-mostly-unknown-vp-pick/?ex_cid=538twitter
But he doesn't have the obvious baggage of Christie and Gingrich.
Most VP picks historically have not been well known-which is why I think Thomas Perez could be a great pick though he's not at all well known.
Pence for his part is at 8 percent favorable, 15 percent favorable.
He's the less Trumpian candidate for sure. His potential negative is that he's just very, very conservative-he did endorse Ted Cruz.
"Pence is somewhat unpopular among the people who can form an opinion about him, particularly compared with past vice-presidential nominees. His net favorability rating would be the worst of any vice-presidential selection since 1976 at the time of their selection. But the other reported finalists, Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich, are well known and disliked by the American public. In the Marist College poll, Christie had a favorable rating of 34 percent and an unfavorable rating of 50 percent. Gingrich clocked in at 33 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable. Both are disliked by at least half of voters. The vast majority of voters, by contrast, don’t have an opinion on Pence, so the Trump campaign would have more of an opportunity to fashion a positive image for him (of course, that cuts both ways — Hillary Clinton’s campaign would also try to define Pence)."
"Pence also is the most likely of Trump’s finalists to satisfy the conservative base. You can see this using three measures that I have used in the past to rate candidates’ ideology: DW-Nominate common-space scores (which are based on a candidate’s voting record in Congress), fundraising ratings(based on who donates to a candidate) and OnTheIssues scores (based on public statements made by the candidate). Pence scores a 50 or above on all three metrics (-100 is the most liberal, and 100 is the most conservative)."
For all this, Trump still insists that he hasn't made a choice. Might there be a tug of war between himself-who would prefer a Gingrich or Christie-and Manafort who'd prefer someone a little less 'exciting.'
How to define Pence is not hard to get. He's ultra conservative-he calls himself a decaffeinated Rush Limbaugh.
Ygleisas points out that Bernie made an important point at his endorsement of Hillary on Tuesday: Trump actually has a lot of very 'banal conservative' positions on wages, the minimum wage, taxes, and the environment.
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12167824/bernie-sanders-on-trump
HIs claim to be the guy to fight Wall St. is undercut by his vow to eliminate Glass-Steagall.
Yet some believe he represents 'change.'
Pence might actually help in the sense of more clearly linking Trump to the unpopular Republican economic and social agenda.
The White House has at least one nice thing to say about him:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/07/14/white-house-trolls-trump-supporters-praising-mike-pence/
Ann Coulter is not a fan... nor are other Trump fans:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/07/14/trumps-immigration-supporters-furious-trump-allegedly-picking-pence/
Smart of the Obama Administration.
ReplyDeleteIf Coulter Nation is not happy could be good after all
Even more disagreement and disunity!
Did a brief poll Breitbart commenters: generally pretty upset by this too... they were clinging to a Breitbart article that Trump and his team denied the rumors today... but Pence is on a private plane to NY right now, so I let them know that only a brain dead chump (or Breitbart) would put any credence in "Trump and his team." =)
DeleteGreat. Let's hope the Trumpists feel totally betrayed by this.
ReplyDelete