Poitipocalypse Redux

One of the more publicly shared accounts of Pence’s transition from a Catholic youth minister who wanted to be a priest to an evangelical megachurch member came in 1994. That’s when he told the Indianapolis Business Journal about an intense period of religious searching that he underwent in college. “I made a commitment to Christ,” Pence said, speaking of the late 1970s. “I’m a born-again, evangelical Catholic.”

An examination of Pence's legislative record during 12 years in the House reveals scant tangible achievements, instead pointing to a tenure marked by a desire to move the Republican Party and national debate in a conservative direction.
Of 90 standalone bills introduced by Pence during his tenure in the House, the 21 that passed were all "simple resolutions" about matters like placing a member on a committee or rebuking the United Nations, according to the legislative tracker GovTrack. Apart from those, just one Pence bill cleared committee, and then died—a 2005 bill to scrap limits on aggregate campaign contributions by a person in an election cycle. Pence voted against numerous major Bush-era initiatives such as No Child Left Behind in 2001, the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003 (which passed by one vote) and the bank bailout of 2008.
"It's not as if he was a legislator who did more than take strong positions against these things," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "This was a guy who saw his role much more as being a super-magnet trying to pull his party and policy away from the center and toward the right."
Fittingly, the largest contributor to his campaigns and political committees from 1989 to 2014 was Club For Growth, a conservative group that often battles bipartisan deals, according to the nonpartisan Center For Responsive Politics. Pence may build bridges between Trump and conservative donors wary of his ideological bona fides.
Pence also gives some Republicans skeptical of Trump a dash of hope that he'd be able to steer the presumptive nominee in a more conservative direction. "I hope that he can move Mr. Trump on a number of these issues," said Flake.
But that doesn't mean he'd be the ideal figure to help Trump cut deals.
"The idea that Pence is going to be an effective liaison with Congress—he knows Congress, but he's not going to be the Republican equivalent of Joe Biden," said Ornstein. "He's not a dealmaker. That's not his modus operandi."

The rollout of Pence today was one of most bizarre episodes in political history. I really think Trump was on LSD. He came out to introduce Pence, then proceeded to ramble on incoherently about himself for 30 minutes. He finally got around to mentioning the unfortunate fellow and then left. Weird.

But, he has moderated his tone somewhat, more refined now. The more he speaks like he has been, the better.