Mike Pence Hit’s the Eject Button on his Presidential Campaign

Former Vice President Mike Pence

On Saturday in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering, former Indiana Governor and Vice President Mike Pence announced that he is quitting the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Adam Wren a favorite of ours wrote about Pence’s announcement for Politico:

With donations sagging, the former vice president, who often made self-deprecating remarks about his middle-class finances, had recently ponied up $150,000 of his own relatively small, newly-acquired fortune, amassed from a two-book deal and speaking fees, to prop up his campaign.

It wasn’t anywhere close to enough. For months, virtually no pollster or political prognosticator saw his campaign gaining traction in a GOP that prized id over ideology, presentation over pedigree.

Just a little less than two weeks before on October 15th, Wren had written an article about how Pence’s campaign was having financial troubles Wren had reported at the time that: 

Mike Pence’s presidential campaign is running on fumes, reporting just $1.2 million cash on hand and more than $600,000 in debt.

The former vice president raised $3.3 million in the third quarter, he reported Sunday (October 15th). He has given himself $150,000 — a significant figure for a politician who has spent much of his life having never amassed much wealth, and one that far exceeds the less-than-six-figure salary he earned when he was Indiana governor less than a decade ago.

Given that Pence had failed to make much traction either in the polls and with fundraising we were not too surprised to hear that he decided to drop out of the race. We thought he would be either foolish enough or delusional enough to stay in until Iowa, obviously we were mistaken. It would appear that money and polling played a factor in Pence’s decision to quit, but we are fairly certain that he was pressured to do so. Probably by various GOP donors, officials, possibly close friends and family also helped make up his mind. Some of the Never Trump community expressed the belief that Pence’s inability to gain traction is a further sign of how badly the GOP has gotten under Donald Trump, and that Pence’s unwillingness to try to help Trump stay in office after losing the 2020 election doomed his chances.

We don’t deny there is some truth to that, but we don’t believe that was the primary reason his candidacy failed. His campaign went nowhere because Pence could not provide a rationale for why he should be President. He tried to say that the country needed to take a different direction than the one offered by Donald Trump, but at the same time kept saying how proud he was of the work he had done in the Trump-Pence administration. So if he was really proud of the work he had done in the Trump administration why was he running against Trump? Or if he wanted to offer an alternative to Trump why should voters pick him as opposed to one of the other candidates? Also having been Trump’s chief flunky as Vice President gave Anti-Trump Republicans no reason to trust Pence with being in the White House. Or as Reagan would have said Pence offered “Pale pastels instead of bold colors”. Meaning he failed to offer any significant distinction between himself and Trump.

Yes Pence did agree to certify the election results, but he had no legal choice but to do so, and he had spent the previous two months being evasive on what he would do. He tried to find ways to do what Trump wanted but failed. If Pence had just come out forcefully from the beginning and said clearly that he and Trump had lost a lot of what went on during January 6th could have been avoided. Instead Pence waffled and waited until the last possible minute before saying clearly that he was powerless to overturn the election results. Pence knew full well that he couldn’t change the results but he stupidly thought he could placate Trump, instead the Frankenstein monster he helped create almost got him killed. 

If God forbid that Trump gets the nomination we would be shocked if Pence doesn’t immediately endorse Trump. So to our fellow Never Trumper’s don’t shed any tears over o Pence’s withdrawal from the race. The man made his deal with the devil and now he must reap the consequences of his actions.

Mike Pence Made a Deal with the Devil, and the Devil Won

Earlier today our good friend that lovable gadfly Paul Ogden wrote a great, great post about how Indianapolis gambled taxpayers money on the past and we all got hosed. By a remarkable coincidence this post spurned us on to right about another exercise in gambling stupidity. As our readers are well aware INDY REPUBLICAN like the late great Gary Welsh, loathes and despises the milquetoast, obsequious, toady that is Vice President Mike Pence. Unlike some in the Never Trump band of conservatives and republicans, we are as much Never Pence as we are Never Trump. Whether it’s old Mikey being less than honest on his voter registration, using his political pull to get his less than qualified nephew John Pence a cushy political job, or putting on his best imitation of a Christian. Vice President Mike Pence has never failed to exceed our already low expectations of his worthless butt.

Back on April 15th, 2020 Adam Wren a writer for Politico and Indianapolis Monthly wrote “Four Years Ago, Mike Pence Hated Presidential Overeach”. When recounts how Mike Pence looked uncomfortable at President Trump’s April 13th, 2020, when the President said that his authority was “total”. 

Wren reports Pence’s response to his master Trump’s proclamation of supreme power. According to Wren, Pence said: 

“Make no mistake about it,” a stone-faced Pence replied. “In the long history of this country, the authority of this country, the authority of the president of the United States during national emergencies is unquestionably plenary.”

There’s a governor who spent his time in office arguing exactly the opposite: that the states had the right to refuse Washington’s dictates, that state autonomy was a constitutional bulwark against overarching presidential power. His name was Mike Pence.

Wren makes reference to a 2011 Washington Times Op-Ed then Congressman Mike Pence wrote, defending states against the overeach of federal power. Here are a few excerpts from that op-ed, back when Pence still pretended to be a conservative:

“ To ensure a lasting victory for limited government, it will not be enough simply to cut government spending. We must permanently reduce the size and scope of the federal government by restoring to the states and the people those responsibilities and resources that are rightfully theirs under the Constitution of the United States.”

“In 1982, Mr. Reagan came to Indiana to address the issue of federalism before a joint session of our state General Assembly. He used that Hoosier setting as a backdrop to announce a new presidential commission on federalism, which he called the “new phase” of the “great American experiment.” As a start, he offered to return 40 federal programs and the revenues associated with them back to the states. The commission and its work fell flat, but Mr. Reagan was right 30 years ago, and he is more right today.“

Sounds light years away from his role serving in and defending an administration that has worked to undermine Congress’s oversight of the federal government, pushed for taxpayer bailout of private businesses, and has sought to bailout American farmers after his insane tariffs have damaged them. While we believe that it is true that Pence sold his soul to Trump in the hopes of becoming president. We happen to believe that his so called Christian faith, and belief in limited government have long been a fraud that Pence has peddled in his quest for significance. In congress Pence never passed anything of any importance. It’s true he now and then pretended to support government whistleblowers. But as a congressman, governor, and now Vice President he has done less than nothing to protect whistleblowers. 

Some have attempted to defend Pence by saying he has pushed behind the scenes to reign in Trump, or that he has no choice but to obey Trump. Our response to this is “Bullshit”! The belief that Pence has tried in ANY way at all to undermine Trump, is as flimsy as the evidence for Scientology’s belief in invisible space aliens infesting our bodies. Or in other words there is NO proof of either, because like Scientology’s body thetans, the legend of Pence having a spine is a complete fabrication. As to the argument that Pence has to do as he is told by Trump. Let’s quote from the Constitution that Pence swore on a Bible to uphold:

Article I, Section III, Clause I: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

That is pretty much all the Constitution says about the Vice President. He cannot be fired by Trump. At the very least he could take stands against the President when he oversteps his bounds. Sure Trump would rage tweet at him, and he may not get elected to another office. But he will get a government pension, and any TRUE Christian would stand against the blasphemies uttered by the mouth of Donald Trump. 

For a more in depth view of Pence selling his soul, checkout yesterday’s episode of Joe Walsh’s podcast “Fuck Silence”: