Looks like Mike Pence’s the choice. Very smart move by Trump.
OK, Trump’s VP pick probably didn’t deserve his own thread and I personally think he’s a terrible choice, but it’s the traditional line and we have so very few traditions here.
Transplanted from the other thread:
538 on why Pence was the “least worst choice.”
Basically, people who know who he is don’t like him. But the up side is, nobody knows who he is!
(Which won’t make any sense until given the context: the alternatives are Christie and Newt, who are both widely known and widely despised.)
https://twitter.com/PiercedSkull/status/754096294499454976
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CncWIdFUsAAStvC.jpg
Impressive editoral from TPM (not only on the Pence waffling but the total destruction of Christie):
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dominance-and-humiliation-no-middle-ground
Yet the precise motivations, the exact origins of the leak pale before a larger reality. They send an unmistakable message. Coming into the orbit of Mr Trump, taking his yoke as it were, requires not only total submission, a total relaxation of every muscle and defense but a farewell to all independence and dignity.
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate …
Look at Chris Christie, a once strong-arming figure now reduced to being the iconic symbol of a shudder-inducing, oddly voluntary and seemingly perpetual cycle of abject humiliation. In addition to all the ‘hostage Christie’ memes we saw over recent months, Trump forces made sure to tell numerous reporters that as recently as Thursday night - last night - Christie was literally pitching himself to Trump on the phone, again begging to be picked for Veep even after the decision for Pence had apparently already been made. As recently as Friday morning, according to the Times, Christie still thought he was still in the running. It seems quite likely Christie only finally learned his fate from Trump’s twitter. As the Times put it with some understatement in a separate article dedicated entirely to Christie’s public humiliation, “Mr. Trump appeared to relish poking fun at his effusive booster.”
It is a genuine mystery what sort of hold Trump was able to take over Christie. But it seems to have been total. Like a vampire, Trump drained Christie of all dignity and filled the space he once occupied with a raked carcass of dignity loss.
I’m still coming to terms with the official announcement coming in the form of a tweet.
/#atleastitisntNewt
In case you guys forgot we have a VP, he’s finally making the news again. I know it’s hard to see him sometimes, taking cover and laying low deep, deep in Trump’s shadow.
Dang, George Will really, really hates Pence.
Didn’t Pence deliver a 14 minute a prayer of thanks to Trump a few months ago?
[edit]
It was 3 minutes, and contained 14 compliments.
Reading this comment 2 years later is kind of funny. I’m imagining some sort of time machine that could beam back in time his other tweets from the last 2 years.
Ruben Navarrette wrote a piece yesterday in the Washington Post describing how he has been disappointed by Pence since he became VP.
I don’t agree with Will, Trump is still worse. One thing I have noticed is that Never Trump Republican have become much more entertaining writers. I had to look up two words in his column oleaginous and unctuousness, which use to be a pretty common for me 20 years ago, but this century George has been going through the motions when writing his column.
The opening paragraph is really one of the most beautiful insults I’ve seen.
Donald Trump, with his feral cunning, knew. The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure. And Pence, who has reached this pinnacle by dethroning his benefactor, is augmenting the public stock of useful knowledge. Because his is the authentic voice of today’s lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this year’s elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing.
There has been a lot nasty things said about Mike Pence on QT3 but really nothing quite as bad as that paragraph.