2016 Oct 9^th

Tonight is the big kahuna, the debate that is predicted to settle the issue of Trump’s chances to win the presidency; well, maybe. Many believe that Trump’s chances are already zero unless Hillary Clinton has a grand mal seizure before a national audience.

Many have given up on the Donald who will, nevertheless, depart the debate stage while feverishly chewing the curtain. The answer the Republican faithful hope for is to somehow elevate Mike Pence to the top of the ticket. That won’t work because Trump will not drop out and because voting has already begun. Absentee ballots in many jurisdictions have already been mailed even if they haven’t yet been counted.

But what about Pence? Conservative believe that he would have been a better choice, at least more electable, than Donald Trump. I doubt that; Pence has a ton of baggage that he can tote in Indiana but under which he would sag badly in a general election.

He has a record as a Congressman of supporting cutting Social Security, raising the eligibility age, and of attempting to privatize the program. He has always been eager to cut social programs if it meant saving money. He was also eager to cut Medicaid and provide a voucher system in its place. For Pence, it seems that saving money is far more important than providing for the needs of the people. In that regard he fits well with Michigan’s Governor Snyder who amassed a 500 million dollar budget surplus while providing cheaper lead-tainted drinking water to the citizens of Flint.

His championing the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” produced an uproar because it allowed any business person who claimed that they had a religious objection to the lifestyle of any citizen to refuse service to that citizen. The NCAA objected as did a host of major industrial companies, some declaring they would move their operations to another state.  This bill was signed by Pence on March 26^th 2015; by April 2^nd 2015, the uproar had increased to the point that Pence had to alter the bill to provide protection to members of the LBGT community. Now Pence began getting unhappy noises from the religious right that had pushed the original bill.

 Pence now has a problem with Trump’s less than Christian attitude toward women as expressed in the video of last Friday afternoon. At first Pence was in hiding and refused to comment, then, a full day later on Saturday afternoon he finally said that he couldn’t condone or defend Trump’s comments but noted that they were “eleven years old.” The evidence that Trump is different now is what? Pence is in much more trouble than Donald Trump, Pence has nothing going for him but his political future and that future is dimming very fast.