Pence, who is the ultimate throwback to a bygone (and hopefully dead) era when neoconservatives marched in lockstep with Libertarians on economic policies and (strangely) theoconservatives on social policies, is doing everything in his power to remind the voters why they don’t need him—and why America shouldn’t want him.
Already unpopular with the Trump base of voters for having supposedly “betrayed” their leader by refusing to overturn the 2020 election during the tumultuous final days of the Trump Administration, Pence is now going after the other most popular possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
This will not end well for Pence, who will soon find himself unable to secure a base of voters, as both Trump and DeSantis have gobbled up most of the voters on the Right.
[Pence will have to go on offense against DeSantis if he jumps into the race, so it’s tough to chide him over that too much. At least Pence didn’t make it personal, as Trump has with his tiresome namecalling and flat-out demagoguery. But Weichert’s probably right that there just won’t be any room for Pence in this primary, not because Pence goes on offense but because Pence is too far out of touch with the voters in the party. Pence should have run in 2012. — Ed]
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