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b_b  ·  2970 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 2nd Presidential Debate Thread: Town Hall Sunday

Apparently not. The only reason I can think that an otherwise reasonable person like Pence (and I mean reasonable in the loosest possible sense--not referring at all to his policy positions) would tolerate Trump is that he sees it as the easiest possible path to the White House. Kasich's people said that Trump's son called them last spring to offer him the job, adding that Kasich could be in charge of "domestic and foreign policy," while Trump himself would handle "making American great again." We can only assume the same offer was made to Pence. Right now, NYT gives Trump 16% odds of winning. To Pence, he has a 16% of being president himself, possibly for 16 years, since even if Trump doesn't immediately abdicate, he'll still be steering the ship. On the other hand, when Trump inevitably loses, Pence looks like the Good Guy who tried to right the ship against insurmountable odds, taking one on the chin for the GOP, thereby all but ensuring his 2020 bid for the Presidency. People think he's crazy, but I think he sees it as a win-win for himself. And the thing that should be obvious about politicians is that if you want to understand their behavior, you need to look at from the perspective of their own self-interest. That trumps all the notions of evangelicalism that he espouses and will every time.