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> Pence could have big changes if Trump VP candidate
diggler
post Aug 5 2016, 02:51 PM
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The real pressing issue and question now in this race....is if Pence will move to the TOP of the ticket.....when his bombastic boss drops out before the election...as everyone now seems to be predicting.

http://politi.co/2aJgKGs

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Jesse B
post Aug 7 2016, 10:06 AM
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If he does move to the top I hope he makes school of choice an option everywhere and for everyone. He could make closing down underperforming schools a priority.
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diggler
post Aug 9 2016, 05:44 PM
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QUOTE

Donald Trump on Tuesday said "the Second Amendment people" may be the only way to stop Hillary Clinton from getting to appoint federal judges if she wins the presidential election in November.

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment,” he said as an aside while smiling. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, said Trump was "of course not" advocating violence with his remarks. Pence was on stage at a town hall-style event in Lancaster PA when Trump made the remarks.

“Hillary Clinton has made it very clear that she wants to see changes in the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, and Donald Trump is clearly saying that people cherish that right. People who believe that firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens make our communities more safe not less safe should be involved in the political process and let their voice be heard,” Pence said in an interview with Philadelphia's NBC10.

http://politi.co/2bcZqgA

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Southsider2k12
post Aug 10 2016, 10:12 AM
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Pence made the biggest mistake of his political career hitching his wagon to Trump.
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diggler
post Aug 10 2016, 12:18 PM
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QUOTE(Southsider2k12 @ Aug 10 2016, 11:12 AM) *

Pence made the biggest mistake of his political career hitching his wagon to Trump.

So its either Pence moves to the top of ticket....or Congress picks the next Prez. You tell me. unsure.gif

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Southsider2k12
post Aug 10 2016, 12:41 PM
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QUOTE(diggler @ Aug 10 2016, 01:18 PM) *

So its either Pence moves to the top of ticket....or Congress picks the next Prez. You tell me. unsure.gif

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The GOP isn't winning this election. It doesn't really matter, the damage has been done.
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diggler
post Aug 11 2016, 06:34 AM
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Mike Pence has been the good soldier. He’s standing up for his boss and cleaning up Donald Trump’s messes. And he’s even holding onto a thin edge in the polls that show more people still like him than dislike him.

But Trump’s campaign is devolving, driven by one self-inflicted wound after another. And barring a sharp turnaround, Pence’s allies will need to focus on minimizing the damage by association the Indiana governor will face if he aims for a political career after Election Day.

http://politi.co/2aUJq1M

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Jesse B
post Aug 11 2016, 10:21 AM
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QUOTE(Southsider2k12 @ Aug 10 2016, 01:41 PM) *

The GOP isn't winning this election. It doesn't really matter, the damage has been done.



I'm not sure what damage you are talking about? Benghazi, 30,000 emails dumped, $$$ for favors from foreign countries, enabling a cheating husband, a poor economy, a gutted military, record debt, more people on food stamps and no longer even looking for work. Hitching your wagon to Obama and the whole BTL mess where the police are considered guilty of doing their jobs and the current administration blames them for poor race relations. I guess you are right this must be a GOP issue.

No let's give people free college, waive student debt and continue a country in decline. The real problem is both sides are getting "fat" at the expense of the citizens of this country and we need to hit a reset button. Big money calls the shots and couldn't care less about the middle class or the poor except to get votes to keep receiving their perks in office.

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exsteel5
post Aug 11 2016, 11:11 AM
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QUOTE(Jesse B @ Aug 11 2016, 11:21 AM) *

I'm not sure what damage you are talking about? Benghazi, 30,000 emails dumped, $$$ for favors from foreign countries, enabling a cheating husband, a poor economy, a gutted military, record debt, more people on food stamps and no longer even looking for work. Hitching your wagon to Obama and the whole BTL mess where the police are considered guilty of doing their jobs and the current administration blames them for poor race relations. I guess you are right this must be a GOP issue.

No let's give people free college, waive student debt and continue a country in decline. The real problem is both sides are getting "fat" at the expense of the citizens of this country and we need to hit a reset button. Big money calls the shots and couldn't care less about the middle class or the poor except to get votes to keep receiving their perks in office.


Wow!!! Well said Jesse B!! I am not the biggest fan of Donald Trump, but he is way, way, way better then a lying, cheating, pay for play politician like Clinton. They put Blago away for 14 years for trying to get pay for play, and he didn't succeed. She has gained millions personally from her dealings. When will they finally convict her? I also like Trump because he is 1) truly an outsider and owes nothing to anyone and 2) he is NOT a lawyer. It is about time we have someone that is not a lawyer, similar to Reagan (not a lawyer) that will act based on doing what is right and not based on a favor you owe to a particular group. Based on the size of people attending his rallies versus hers, he will win by a landslide. We will see.
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Southsider2k12
post Aug 11 2016, 11:24 AM
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Trump has "succeed" by taking all attention off of everything that Hillary Clinton has ever done. Instead she is literally running on a platform, of "hey y'all watch him!". That is why the damage has been done. This isn't a Presidential election, it is a circus. No one is looking at HIllary anymore.
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diggler
post Aug 11 2016, 01:36 PM
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This is a classical shrewd Trump SETUP:

QUOTE
Donald Trump has described President Barack Obama as “the founder of Isis”, and said his rival Hillary Clinton was the “co-founder” of the fundamentalist organisation as he intensified his attacks on the Democratic Party.

http://ind.pn/2b0LX9Q

All its gonna take is another Orlando or San Bernardino type massacre before the election, and the Trumpster IS IN.

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diggler
post Aug 14 2016, 04:58 PM
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Pence urges investigation into Clinton 'pay-to-play'

The Indiana governor also said Trump will lay out his vision to defeat ISIS on Monday.

By COLIN WILHELM 08/14/16

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is calling for an investigation into whether contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative influenced Hillary Clinton’s decisions as secretary of state.

“The new emails that have been made public just in the last week seem to make a direct connection between favors done by State Department officials and major foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation,” the Indiana governor said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Asked whether there is any actual evidence that Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, made decisions driven by those donations, Pence hedged at first and then doubled down.

“Certainly, officials at the FBI, we also found out this week, believe that there should be an investigation, and Obama's Department of Justice apparently has shut that down,” Pence said. “The public has a right to know, because this — really and truly, this is exactly the kind of pay-to-play politics the American people are, are sick and tired of. But, frankly, it is just one more example of the way I do believe that the Clintons have been operating over the last 30 years.”

Pence seemed to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he was being sarcastic when he labeled called Clinton and President Barack Obama the founders of the Islamic State.

“Well, I think he was being very serious, and he was making a point that needs to be made, that there is no question that the failed policies of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the wider Middle East, created a vacuum within Iraq in which ISIS was able to arise,” Pence said in the Fox interview, taped Friday in the Indiana governor’s mansion. “Donald Trump has a way of talking to get people’s attention, and it’s drawn attention to a very important issue.”

The Republican presidential nominee will detail his plan to defeat ISIS in a major speech on Monday in Ohio, Pence said.

“He’s going to lay out his vision and his strategy for defeating radical Islamic terrorism,” Pence said.

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diggler
post Aug 15 2016, 07:47 AM
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Trump’s Self-Reckoning

The GOP nominee and his supporters face a moment of truth.

WSJ

Donald Trump lashed out at the media on Sunday after more stories describing dysfunction inside his presidential campaign. “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%,” Mr. Trump averred on Twitter.

Mr. Trump is right that most of the media want him to lose, but then that was also true of George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. It’s true of every Republican presidential nominee. The difference is that Mr. Trump has made it so easy for the media and his opponents.

The latest stories comport with what we also hear from sources close to the Trump campaign. Mr. Trump’s advisers and his family want the candidate to deliver a consistent message making the case for change. They’d like him to be disciplined. They want him to focus on growing the economy and raising incomes and fighting terrorism.

They think he should make the election a referendum on Hillary Clinton, not on himself. And they’d like him to spend a little time each day—a half hour even—studying the issues he’ll need to understand if he becomes President.

Is that so hard? Apparently so. Mr. Trump prefers to watch the cable shows rather than read a briefing paper. He thinks the same shoot-from-the-lip style that won over a plurality of GOP primary voters can persuade other Republicans and independents who worry if he has the temperament to be Commander in Chief.

He also thinks the crowds at his campaign rallies are a substitute for the lack of a field organization and digital turnout strategy. And he thinks that Twitter and social media can make up for being outspent $100 million to zero in battleground states.

By now it should be obvious that none of this is working. It’s obvious to many of his advisers, who are the sources for the news stories about dysfunction. They may be covering for themselves, but this is what happens in failing campaigns. The difference is that the recriminations typically start in October, not mid-August.

These stories are appearing now because the polls show that Mr. Trump is on the path to losing a winnable race. He is now losing in every key battleground state, some like New Hampshire by double digits. The Midwest industrial states he claimed he would put into play—Wisconsin, Pennsylvania—have turned sharply toward Mrs. Clinton.

More ominously, states won by John McCain and Mitt Romney are much closer than they should be. If Mr. Trump is fighting to hold Georgia, Arizona and even Utah by September, a landslide defeat becomes all too possible.

The tragedy is that this is happening in a year when Republicans should win. The political scientist Alan Abramowitz has spent years developing his “time for a change” forecasting model. The model looks at the rate of GDP growth in the second quarter of an election year (1.2% this year), the incumbent President’s approval rating, and the electorate’s desire for change after one party has held the White House for eight years.

No model is perfect, but Mr. Abramowitz’s has predicted the winner of the major-party popular vote in every presidential election since 1988. His model predicts that Mr. Trump should win a narrow victory with 51.4%. A mainstream GOP candidate who runs a reasonably competent campaign would have about a 66% chance of victory.

Mr. Trump has alienated his party and he isn’t running a competent campaign. Mrs. Clinton is the second most unpopular presidential nominee in history—after Mr. Trump. But rather than reassure voters and try to repair his image, the New Yorker has spent the last three weeks giving his critics more ammunition.

Even with more than 80 days left, Mr. Trump’s window for a turnaround is closing. The “Trump pivot” always seemed implausible given his lifelong instincts and habits, but Mr. Trump promised Republicans. “At some point I’ll be so presidential that you people will be so bored, and I’ll come back as a presidential person, and instead of 10,000 people I’ll have about 150 people and they’ll say, boy, he really looks presidential,” he said in April.

Those who sold Mr. Trump to GOP voters as the man who could defeat Hillary Clinton now face a moment of truth. Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort and the talk-radio right told Republicans their man could rise to the occasion.

If they can’t get Mr. Trump to change his act by Labor Day, the GOP will have no choice but to write off the nominee as hopeless and focus on salvaging the Senate and House and other down-ballot races. As for Mr. Trump, he needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be President—or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence.

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diggler
post Aug 16 2016, 04:16 AM
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Mike Pence’s other life

The Indiana governor this weekend took a break from being Trump’s running mate — trading talk of the Islamic State and Benghazi for chitchat on soccer and raccoons.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 08/16/16

COLUMBUS, Ind. — On Monday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence returned to his role as Donald Trump’s running mate, joining his beleaguered partner in Ohio and talking about a plan to defeat the Islamic State.

It was a far cry from Saturday, when Pence talked strategy for defeating a different nemesis: raccoons.

“We have a serious raccoon problem,” Pence explained to Kim Hoeltke at a Columbus, Indiana, farmers market, discussing the vegetable garden behind the governor’s mansion. “We really do.”

His wife, Karen Pence, at his side, looked ready to move on. But Trump’s running mate wanted to keep discussing raccoons. Per the governor, the creatures really enjoy sweet corn, including the stock growing behind the governor’s mansion. Later, Pence was purchasing corn at Hackman’s corn stand (it was like a stand selling corn), where one 14-year-old saleswoman was not star struck by the man who could soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

“I’ve met him like 10 times ... Over 10 times,” the young woman, Allana, said as Pence approached the corn stand.

Pence spent Saturday ostensibly campaigning for Indiana Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is seeking to succeed him in November. But he was also taking a trip into a life that was his full-time as little as a month ago, working the friendly, folksy and carefully honed persona he rode to the top of Indiana politics before joining Trump’s ticket.

It’s still a deeply political errand. Pence knew how to gently shift a constituent mid-conversation to give the press cameras a better view, gently placing a hand on her arm, shifting their positions so that they both faced toward a gaggle of reporters who stood a few feet away with their cameras trained on the governor. His wife praised Trump to a man and his grandson, standing plainly within earshot of the press. “Mr. Trump — he’s so, so kind,” she said.

It is, however, a political errand that exists at least partly outside of Trump’s shadow. Yes, the gaggle of national reporters tracked his every move, and yes, they queried him about his tax returns.

But Pence ignored them, for once unencumbered by Trump’s controversies as he lavished his attention on the good people of Columbus, Pence’s childhood hometown. And as Pence made his was from Upland Pump House to the farmers market to Joe Willy’s Burger Bar on a grey Saturday, his love for the intimacy of retail politicking was on display.

With hugs and handshakes, and many a “Good to see ya” and “How’s the family?” the stops felt more like Pence was running for mayor of Columbus, as he addressed people by name and never rushed a conversation.

At the burger restaurant, Pence moved from table to table as waitresses slid through a throng of reporters and curious diners looked on. With Karen at his side, he extended his arm to snap a selfie with two young girls before passing the phone to a staffer for a proper photo. At the next table, he delivered a high five to 4-year-old Alex Utt, and discussed the chaos of youth soccer with the boy's parents, Bryce and Alicia. “Beautiful family,” he quietly remarked before making his way to the kitchen to greet some workers.

This type of retail politicking is the polar opposite of Trump’s operation, which is fueled by mass rallies and media spectacle. Trump has questioned the utility of the small-group addresses.

“Because Trump comes in, he has these big rallies, and then he leaves,” Trump told a crowd in Scranton, PA in late July. “And I’m supposed to have dinner, like, with two people, spend the entire evening then go to another two. And they said ‘why do you do that?’ And I said well I do it because I can get the rallies, the other people can’t get the rallies.”

And indeed, while Pence was making the rounds in Columbus, Trump spent the weekend in a Twitter war with the national press, including a Sunday tweet about how national outlets unfairly cover his rallies by failing to “show crowd size or enthusiasm.”

By Monday, Pence was back in Trump’s world, having flown to Ohio for Trump’s foreign policy address and echoing his media attacks. “While many in the national media continue to major in the minors, focusing on semantics over substance, today you will hear once again, a man who will remain focused on the solutions to the real challenges facing the people of the United States of America,” Pence said while introducing Trump.

Tuesday, he’ll head to two solo events in New Mexico and then on to stops in Nevada and New Hampshire later in the week. The travel schedule will only get more intense as Election Day nears, taking Pence farther and more frequently away from the home state stops at farmers markets and burger joints.
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Mike D
post Aug 17 2016, 11:18 AM
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QUOTE(Southsider2k12 @ Aug 11 2016, 12:24 PM) *

Trump has "succeed" by taking all attention off of everything that Hillary Clinton has ever done. Instead she is literally running on a platform, of "hey y'all watch him!". That is why the damage has been done. This isn't a Presidential election, it is a circus. No one is looking at HIllary anymore.


I wholeheartedly agree with southsider - this election, particularly the RNC, is a travesty of our democracy, but largely, self-inflicted. At Thanksgiving, our family discussed the situation - as we are all largely independent and vote our conscience in all cases. One of my sisters lived in DC and I told her that I felt sorry for those folks who take this stuff seriously. whatever your political sway, there are serious people, many of them young, who work for these institutions and in my opinion, are getting hurt. They are well educated, good people, part of our national treasure, and this experience is souring them plenty on the process. My own opinion is that the RNC is "reaping" what they "sowed" - and yeah, this looks deep and wide in terms of the future - especially given the way the electoral maps have been redrawn to carve up "safe" RNC districts and pack unsafe ones into mega-color districts. (Think I'm making it up? - take a look at your own district's history. Ever wonder why MC got put into the 1st and out of the 2nd? Probably too many people of color for the 2nd, which used to be a greatly contested district of yesteryear. ) What happens is that it is easy to keep the House, but impossible to get the White house and dangerous for the Senate. Google ALEC + congressional districts. Ah ha!

For more on defections at the RNC, seeYoung People Leaving RNC .

As far as corruption is concerned, I won't go into the Clinton Foundation, et al, as fox news is doing a great job on that - perhaps hourly. But here is something you won't hear on fox news Trumps' tax dodge in NJ under Christie. Corruption is part of the insiders' game, and up rooting it here or Russia is simply not easy. Nor is it one-sided - ever!

So here is your new mouthpiece, give the last guy was caught in some unsavory escapes in Ukraine Trump's New Man. How is a person like this ever going to appeal to anyone other than angry white guys? And guess what - there are less and less angry white guys every year! (I am white, middle class btw.).

Madam Secretary may not be the best to anyone, but she will be the best for everyone - me, you, Wall Street and maybe even a few Bernie supporters. Bill Clinton got us family leave, plant closure act (Trump supporters forgot that one I'm sure), kept us out of war and economic ruin, and fooled around - so what! Bush gave us trillion dollar wars, scores of dead young men, a bunch more with PTSD, economic turmoil and yet the rich got richer - amazing. Yeah, vote that way again for a guy who maybe even worse than that! Obama also kept us out of war, guided one of the biggest economic recoveries in human history (and, probably didn't notice that the USA economy skipped the recessions in China and Europe!!), and gave us universal health care. And they want to string them up.

Why American 99%ers vote against their interests is beyond me and I'm likely to die with that. Hope my sons do better. It isn't the Clintons or Obama's fault that you got Trump - it is your RNC - who lauded him because of the new voters. But they were silly- those were new voters to the primaries!!! Open primaries were new as well, which skewed results. Court a dying breed - die with them. Court the new folks - Latin, young people, techies and more people with health care issues - you win.

I thought Cruz might challenge Clinton because he is smart, but that ship sailed. Obama haters better start focusing on defeating Bayh et al., or it will be a blue Christmas big time.
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Mike D
post Aug 17 2016, 11:21 AM
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QUOTE(Southsider2k12 @ Aug 10 2016, 11:12 AM) *

Pence made the biggest mistake of his political career hitching his wagon to Trump.


I think Pence is going to be ok the way George H.W. Bush was - a real loyalist. The RNC/GOP folks will remember that he took one for the team. Pence is a fellow demagogue, but fairly harmless in a place like Indiana, where we pretty much run things without big brother. I see him running for Senator against Joe D down the road or picking up a cherry fat cat spot in Washington anytime soon.
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Jesse B
post Aug 17 2016, 01:53 PM
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All I will say Mike is I will cancel your vote out. #Never Hillary
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diggler
post Aug 18 2016, 07:14 AM
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Trump needs to be more Trumpian. laugh.gif

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Mike D
post Aug 19 2016, 09:40 AM
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QUOTE(Jesse B @ Aug 17 2016, 02:53 PM) *

All I will say Mike is I will cancel your vote out. #Never Hillary


1. you have no idea how I am going to vote
2. you missed the point of my blog
3. I am guessing you will get the last word on the post which is fine

I suspect Indiana will vote for trump given the pence factor and in some ways this is nice because most value loyalty. so if you live in Indiana...

however, if you live in Michigan, I think an "OMG" is in order - particular our neighbors in Berrien, read on
Trump losing western michigan and more


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diggler
post Aug 19 2016, 11:49 AM
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Pence builds bridges, alone

He’s reaching out to the GOP establishment in hopes of uniting the party, but the establishment isn’t warming to Trump, and Trump isn’t helping.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Mike Pence is on a mission to mend fences between recalcitrant Republicans and Donald Trump, but Trump isn’t helping him do it.

Pence is hoping his years in the upper echelons of Republican politics will help him win over Republicans still skeptical of their party’s nominee, but his bid has gotten little help from the top of the ticket. The plan for GOP outreach started with Pence, his aides confirm, and while Trump nominally supports the effort, he hasn’t taken an active part in it. Pence, not Trump, picks who gets meetings and phone calls, and when Pence does speak with fellow Republicans, Trump does not send along guidance or specific messages for his running mate to convey. The extent of Trump’s participation is to discuss with Pence some, but not all, of his meetings.

Asked about the outreach process, Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks said the Pence campaign would reply.

Trump’s lack of involvement hasn’t stopped Pence from trying to win over Trump skeptics. He met with his longtime friend Sen. Jeff Flake in Arizona, spoke by phone with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and left a voicemail for Ohio Gov. John Kasich (Kasich returned the call, but the two had not connected as of Tuesday morning). Pence told Flake that Trump is “a different guy in private than he is shown in public,” according to Flake.

So far, however, none of the men Pence contacted have warmed to Trump — Republican insiders say that, absent big changes from Trump, his running mate's outreach effort is unlikely to have much success.

“He's going to be a good soldier,” Rick Tyler, who worked for Cruz, said of Pence, acknowledging that reaching out to anti-Trump Republicans is part of the job. As to whether the overtures would work, however, Tyler had a simple answer: “No.”

Stuart Stevens, a top strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012 and a vocal Trump critic, was specific in what Pence could do to win over GOP skeptics: “My outreach plan would be to have Pence replace Trump. I think that would work.”

Trump’s troubles with the GOP establishment were profound even before he it became public that he was shaking up his campaign leadership with the addition of Stephen Bannon, formerly a top executive at Breitbart News whose withering attacks are directed equally at Democrats and the Republican establishment. (The other half of the staff shakeup, Kellyanne Conway’s elevation to campaign manager, may help Pence’s efforts and influence on the ticket, as she previously worked as a pollster for Pence.)

Pence’s support for even those Republicans who do not support Trump can have awkward consequences. When he was asked Tuesday at a New Mexico town hall why some Republicans, such as Gov. Susana Martinez, are not supporting the nominee, he responded by calling Martinez “a dear, dear friend” and “a great governor.” The crowd booed.

Pence has also made efforts with some GOP backers of Trump who have been less than enthusiastic in their support. He spoke by phone with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and set up an in-person meeting with Sen. John McCain in Arizona.

And Pence had more opportunities to evangelize on Trump’s behalf with fellow Republicans on Tuesday, when he made his way to Aspen, Colorado, to deliver a lunchtime address to the Republican Governors Association Summer Meeting. Among those in attendance at the meeting were Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, both of whom have said they will not support Trump. Martinez, who was a target of Trump’s ire earlier this year, was also in attendance, and spoke with Pence. Pence, who has served in the Indiana statehouse since 2013, has a personal rapport with many in attendance that Trump does not. And Pence, of course, has refrained from attacking his fellow Republicans.

Among some vehemently anti-Trump Republicans, however, no amount of Pence outreach can paper over their differences, leaving Pence searching for a consolation prize: keeping them from vocally opposing Trump, and depriving Hillary Clinton's campaign of more fodder from the anti-Trump wing of the GOP.

Even as Pence has made these efforts, Trump has continued to alienate his fellow Republicans, including by initially declining to endorse McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump’s addition of Brietbart editor Stephen Bannon as his campaign manager has the potential to further marginalize some moderate Republicans, which could make Pence's job even tougher. After the latest turmoil at the top of the campaign, Stevens said he sees more Republicans un-endorsing the candidate than actually coming on board. And the self-interest may continue to drive Republicans away from Trump as he languishes in the polls.

Even if his efforts fail to yield fruit, however, the outreach is a no-lose affair. Regardless of what it does to help Trump's campaign, it keeps Pence’s cachet with the establishment intact, protecting a potential political future should Trump fall short in November.

Pence will be in a powerful position if Trump loses in November, having built a national network and profile. He could potentially run for a Democrat-controlled Senate seat in Indiana in 2018, or aim for the GOP presidential nomination in 2020. But both advocating for Trump and avoiding being brought down by him makes for a difficult balancing act.

Tyler, the former Cruz campaign aide, was skeptical that respect for Pence would win Republicans over to Trump.

“Their own judgment is going to override Mike's efforts. They know what he’s trying to do,” Tyler said.

Stevens, again, was more blunt.

"Donald Trump is a ridiculous human being,” Stevens said Wednesday. "In life, when a good friend of yours suggests that you go out with a crazy person, that doesn’t make the person any less crazy. They’re still crazy.”
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